#bright-sided

[hexpatient]

"... So, bad science may have produced the cancer in the first place, just as the bad science of positive thinking plagued me throughout my illness. Breast cancer, I can now report, did not make me prettier, or stronger, more feminine, or spiritual. What it gave me, if you want to call this a gift, was a very personal agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that i had not been aware of before. One that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate."

Bright-Sided: How The Relentless Promotion Of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, by Barbara Ehrenreich

[1000rh]

This retreat from the real drama and tragedy of human events is suggestive of a deep helplessness at the core of positive thinking. […] Of course, if the powers of mind were truly “infinite,” one would not have to eliminate negative people from one’s life either; one could, for example, simply choose to interpret their behavior in a positive way—maybe he’s criticizing me for my own good, maybe she’s being sullen because she likes me so much and I haven’t been attentive, and so on. The advice that you must change your environment—for example, by eliminating negative people and news—is an admission that there may in fact be a “real world” out there that is utterly unaffected by our wishes. In the face of this terrifying possibility, the only “positive” response is to withdraw into one’s own carefully constructed world of constant approval and affirmation, nice news, and smiling people.

– Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-sided (2009)

[orpheusdrinkinga40inadeathbasket]

What would it mean in practice to eliminate all the 'negative people' from one's life? It might be a good move to separate from a chronically carping spouse, but it is not so easy to abandon the whiny toddler, the colicky infant, or the sullen teenager. And at the workplace, while it's probably advisable to detect and terminate those who show signs of becoming mass killers, there are other annoying people who might actually have something useful to say: the financial officer who keeps worrying about the bank's subprime mortgage exposure or the auto executive who questions the company's overinvestment in SUVs and trucks. Purge everyone who 'brings you down,' and you risk being very lonely, or, what is worse, cut off from reality. But in the world of positive thinking other people are not there to be nurtured or to provide unwelcome reality checks. They are there only to nourish, praise, and affirm. Harsh as this dictum sounds, many ordinary people adopt it as their creed, displaying wall plaques or bumper stickers showing the word 'Whining' with a cancel sign through it. There seems to be a massive empathy deficit, which people respond to by withdrawing their own. No one has the time or patience for anyone else's problems.

Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

[hexpatient]

"A curious self alienation is required for this kind of effort. There is the self that must be worked on, and a self that does the work. Hence the ubiquitous rules, worksheets, self evaluation forms, and exercises offered in the positive thinking literature. These are the practical instructions for the work of conditioning or reprogramming that the self must accomplish on itself."

Bright-Sided, How The Relentless Promoting of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, By Barbara Ehrenreich, Chapter 3

This is in the section about the development of the New Thought movement and how it was sort of born of Calvinism, and how it continued to evolve into the 1900s. But it is so overtly applicable of the therapy abuse that i had to share. Also this quote may not be grammar/text accurate because im listening to the audiobook.

[itssophietexas]

i mostly read nonfiction or informational books and tied for favorite are

Unmasking Autism by Devon Price and Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich

UA is pretty self explanatory but it’s one of the best informational books on Autism i’ve found, made better since it’s by and autistic person!

Bright-Sided is about the negative side of positivity thinking. it sounds doom and gloom but it’s really not. it discusses the origins of positivity culture in puritan america and how it transformed into a capitalist ploy.

i don’t talk about this often but during the pandemic i went through what is often described as “spiritual psychosis”. i don’t feel super comfortable describing it yet, but i found this book to be a breath of fresh air to all the self help books i consumed.

it’s a fascinating read and it really helped me put things into perspective!

[amazinghowyoulove]

i hate when able-bodied people use “healing” concepts to word police me.  I don’t mean language that is racist, homophobic, or ableist towards disabilities I don’t have.  I mean like when they think I’m “still” disabled because I said if I get better and not WHEN.  like shut the fuck up, it’s concepts like that which leave me completely unprepared for my future and only exist so people like you can think you’re able-bodied because of your stupid positive thoughts. 

[amazinghowyoulove]

Another White Lady finds the secret to happiness

Have an easy life.