The ‘Tyranny’ of Positive Thinking

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A friend posted this article about the pitfalls of positive psychology on Facebook this morning, and gosh– it resonated.

I’ve honestly been annoyed by the concept of positive thinking for a long time. It seems like most of the time, when someone tells urges you to be more “positive,” what they really mean is that they’re tired of listening to you.

The whole idea of trying to “block out” negative thoughts never made sense to me. If you have a problem, shouldn’t you try to solve it? Pretending the problem doesn’t exist isn’t going to make it go away. You have these feelings for a reason. It’s gut instinct trying to tell you that something is wrong and needs to change.

As someone who’s spent a lot of time battling health issues that appeared to many people to be “in her head,” I’ve probably been accused of dwelling on the negative more than the average person. (But probably not more than most of my fellow health bloggers– I know you guys will know what I mean!).

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I had never really considered how that mindset might be unique to where I live (the Northeastern US) until I spoke with my friend M., who is from Costa Rica. She told me that, since moving to the US several years ago, she feels a definite pressure to sweep problems under the rug and always appear cheerful– a pressure that was not there back home.

In Costa Rica, M. says, people have more of an understanding that problems are part of life, and that we all need to find someone else to listen once in a while. When you’re experiencing a crisis, it’s not so much a reflection on you as a person, like it is in the US. It’s more that it’s your turn to go through an aspect of life that everyone experiences occasionally.

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Well, this Newsweek article totally backs M. and me up.

The author, Morgan Mitchell, cites several studies that have demonstrated that there are drawbacks, and even potential dangers, of positive psychology (and its less-nuanced cousin, positive thinking).

For example, Mitchell cites a recent study by Karen Coifman et al., which found that “when people acknowledge and address negative emotions toward their relationships or chronic illnesses, it helps them adjust their behavior and have more appropriate responses. Those negative emotions, in turn, benefit their overall psychological health. ”

That’s exactly what I’ve been saying. You need to fully experience the negative emotions you have, so that you can process them and then get to a better place emotionally.

Mitchell also references a study by Elizabeth Kneeland and colleagues, which “concluded that people who think emotions are easily influenced and changeable are more likely to blame themselves for the negative emotions they feel than people who think emotions are fixed and out of their control.”

In other words, people who view their own negative response to a given situation as a reflection of their own shortcomings are most likely to feel badly about themselves. To me this seems like a complete waste of energy– instead of judging yourself for your emotional response to something, wouldn’t it be better to focus on doing whatever it takes to create a better situation?

Trust Your Nervous System photo courtesy of Cliph

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14 Comments

  1. The method is only really applicable to the first world, where people often have so little actual problems, and those they do have are so small, that they can just ignore them and get by fine. Which is fine. But people who’ve gotten by on that, are usually useless when a real problem comes – more often than not, getting in the way with their fanciful suggestions to “be positive”.

  2. The method is only really applicable to the first world, where people often have so little actual problems, and those they do have are so small, that they can just ignore them and get by fine. Which is fine. But people who’ve gotten by on that, are usually useless when a real problem comes – more often than not, getting in the way with their fanciful suggestions to “be positive”.

  3. I agree Christy! There’s too much emphasis on positive thinking in the U.S. In other cultures this makes no sense, as you’ve already pointed out. There’s a lot of fake smiling in the U.S as a result of this “tyranny of positive thinking”. I think this is closely interrelated with the self-esteem movement, which claims that children who struggle in school would do better if they got a self-esteem boost. Studies indicate that academic success has little to do with self-esteem.

    1. That’s true, I bet it is related to the self-esteem movement! That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing!

  4. I agree Christy! There’s too much emphasis on positive thinking in the U.S. In other cultures this makes no sense, as you’ve already pointed out. There’s a lot of fake smiling in the U.S as a result of this “tyranny of positive thinking”. I think this is closely interrelated with the self-esteem movement, which claims that children who struggle in school would do better if they got a self-esteem boost. Studies indicate that academic success has little to do with self-esteem.

    1. That’s true, I bet it is related to the self-esteem movement! That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for sharing!

  5. I respectfully disagree on some parts, although I do agree that when dealing with depression and anxiety, the whole just be positive movement is shaming bullshit and unhelpful. But “positive psychology” is also technically cognitive behavioral therapy, which is about changing dysfunctional emotions. For me, positive thinking means to not dwell/ruminate on the bad things (not ignore or sweep under a rug) and try to remember to spend energy thinking about the good things I have in my life.

    Specifically with my chronic illness, I don’t want to allow my thoughts to fall into a hole of “why me-s”. I am not pushing away a helpful thought process, I am stepping away from an unproductive one. I do agree with what you are saying, that we have our feelings for a reason and we should move through them and resolve them…but for me, sometimes positive thinking helps me do that.

    1. Thanks for your comment, Rene! You raise some really good points. I don’t think I made this very clear in my post, but my issue is more with the pressure to be positive in our culture as a whole. The article talks about the differences between positive psychology, which I think can be really helpful when applied in a thoughtful manner, and the general “positive thinking” movement, which can sometimes have the effect of causing people to think there’s something wrong with them if they can’t be cheerful all the time. I agree that CBT can be really helpful for giving people a way to restructure their thoughts.

      I’m so glad you’ve found something that is helpful to you!

  6. I respectfully disagree on some parts, although I do agree that when dealing with depression and anxiety, the whole just be positive movement is shaming bullshit and unhelpful. But “positive psychology” is also technically cognitive behavioral therapy, which is about changing dysfunctional emotions. For me, positive thinking means to not dwell/ruminate on the bad things (not ignore or sweep under a rug) and try to remember to spend energy thinking about the good things I have in my life.

    Specifically with my chronic illness, I don’t want to allow my thoughts to fall into a hole of “why me-s”. I am not pushing away a helpful thought process, I am stepping away from an unproductive one. I do agree with what you are saying, that we have our feelings for a reason and we should move through them and resolve them…but for me, sometimes positive thinking helps me do that.

    1. Thanks for your comment, Rene! You raise some really good points. I don’t think I made this very clear in my post, but my issue is more with the pressure to be positive in our culture as a whole. The article talks about the differences between positive psychology, which I think can be really helpful when applied in a thoughtful manner, and the general “positive thinking” movement, which can sometimes have the effect of causing people to think there’s something wrong with them if they can’t be cheerful all the time. I agree that CBT can be really helpful for giving people a way to restructure their thoughts.

      I’m so glad you’ve found something that is helpful to you!

  7. Christy, I couldn’t agree more! Bravo! You have the courage to stand up and expose what is an increasingly common problem in the world. In fact, I find it disturbing when people will say “I only want to hear positive things from you. Your bringing me down. Go see a quack who WILL listen to you.” And therein lies the tragic and inherently flawed problem.

    Not only of promoting the pseudoscience of psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy (and its lesser known nuanced cousins), but also that many people can not go to family and friends to hear out their problems. We would rather sweep problems under the rug and pretend to put on a brave face. That’s all well and good sometimes (no one wants to be whimps or cowards), but the ‘pessimist’ or ‘realist’ shaming has long been old-hat and is becoming harmful to people.

    If someone is going through a hard time, even if you have no advice for that person to help – why not sit with them and just be there to comfort and listen? Why resort to the typical “Be positive. If not, your just miserable and misery loves company’ adage?

    It boggles my mind. Honestly, I have had to cut off family and so-called “friends” from affecting me with their “positivity” only stance. In fact, I was threatened that any job employer would not hire me because i was not more “Positive” like them.

    Christy, hopefully, more people will catch on to what is really going on and finally put an end to the positivity cult, and its related harmful professions.

    1. Hi Emily, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, I totally agree– sometimes the best thing you can do for someone who’s going through a hard time is to sit and listen to them. I’m glad the post resonated with you.

  8. Christy, I couldn’t agree more! Bravo! You have the courage to stand up and expose what is an increasingly common problem in the world. In fact, I find it disturbing when people will say “I only want to hear positive things from you. Your bringing me down. Go see a quack who WILL listen to you.” And therein lies the tragic and inherently flawed problem.

    Not only of promoting the pseudoscience of psychology, psychiatry, and philosophy (and its lesser known nuanced cousins), but also that many people can not go to family and friends to hear out their problems. We would rather sweep problems under the rug and pretend to put on a brave face. That’s all well and good sometimes (no one wants to be whimps or cowards), but the ‘pessimist’ or ‘realist’ shaming has long been old-hat and is becoming harmful to people.

    If someone is going through a hard time, even if you have no advice for that person to help – why not sit with them and just be there to comfort and listen? Why resort to the typical “Be positive. If not, your just miserable and misery loves company’ adage?

    It boggles my mind. Honestly, I have had to cut off family and so-called “friends” from affecting me with their “positivity” only stance. In fact, I was threatened that any job employer would not hire me because i was not more “Positive” like them.

    Christy, hopefully, more people will catch on to what is really going on and finally put an end to the positivity cult, and its related harmful professions.

    1. Hi Emily, thanks so much for your comment! Yes, I totally agree– sometimes the best thing you can do for someone who’s going through a hard time is to sit and listen to them. I’m glad the post resonated with you.

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