Don't worry, be happy?
Not according to Barbara Ehrenreich's latest work, "Bright-Sided: How the Relentess Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America" (2009).
The latest release from cultural critic Ehrenreich ("Nickle and Dimed"), "Bright-Sided" is a scathing attack on obsessive positive-thinking.
Taking on such authors as Rhonda Byrne, whose controversial bestseller "The Secret" (2006) makes the case that simply by visualizing positive situations and outcomes, one can actualize wealth, health and happiness, Byrne argues for a slightly more negative or at least more practical outlook.
"We need to brace ourselves for a struggle against terrifying obstacles," she writes. "And the first step is to recover from the mass delusion that is positive thinking."
By no means should we want to be more depressed, Ehrenreich stresses but it is crucial that we adopt a more realistic view of the world and our feelings.
Ehrenreich's motivation to write "Bright-Sided" came from her own battle with breast cancer in 2001. After being diagnosed, Ehrenreich grew increasingly unsettled by the lack of basic information about the disease made available to women.
While the forums for information were extensive literature, support groups, blogs and fundraising activities it seemed that medical facts were subordinated in favor of an emphasis on self-esteem, she writes in her work: Inspirational quotes far outnumbered information on alternate treatment options; advertisements for pink teddy bears obscured research on the causes of cancer.
When Ehrenreich posted on her blog that she was exasperated by all "the sappy pink ribbons," a number of commenters criticized her bad attitude. Instead of feeling informed and supported, Ehrenreich said she felt isolated and attacked.
The majority of America, Ehrenreich argues convincingly in "Bright Sided," has been led to believe falsely that positive thinking will better one's mind and body, pointing to data from international happiness and well-being surveys that reveal a glaring discrepancy between America's self-esteem ideology and the reality of human feelings.
Despite our cultural fixation with staying positive, statistically, Americans are unhappy and use the most anti-depressants of any population worldwide, she reports.
Ehrenreich suggests that our culture of faux-happiness results in the unhealthy pressure to bottle up negative thoughts and emotions, which she calls "deliberate self-deception."
A particularly convincing section of "Bright-Sided" rails against Byrne's brand of self-help. Achieving positive outcomes just by imagining them requires a universe in which other people are slaves to your whims, Ehrenreich argues.
Ehrenreich goes as far as to relate our current financial crisis to Americans' false sense of positivity. CEOs of major corporations are more like motivational speakers than realistic business analysts, she argues.
Employees who voiced concern about the future of the financial system several years ago, she says, were advised by bosses to "improve their attitude."
To research for her book, Ehrenreich attended a series of motivational speaker panels.
Speakers, she writes, sounded eerily similar to the satirical depiction of self-help motivator Jim Cunningham in "Donnie Darko" (2001) audience members were told to "say I love you' in [their] head at all times so that we can heal all that needs to be healed."
One can imagine that Donnie's reponse "Are you telling us this stuff so we can buy your book? Because, I gotta tell you, if you are, that was some of the worst advice I've ever heard." might well bring a smile to Ehrenreich's face.
Ehrenreich's book is a gem, a refreshing and much-needed counterpoint to the stay-positive culture of America.
