Interesting, but a bit cumbersome at time. Still, I LOVE Barbara Ehrenreich. ( )

I’ll just go ahead and say it: my love for Barbara Ehrenreich knows no bounds. In Bright-Sided, Ehrenreich, in her typically no-nonsense voice of reason, attacks the “relentless promotion of positive thinking,” arguing that our refusal to acknowledge potential negative outcomes is a contributing cause of social and economic crises, as it devalues critical thinking skills in favor of positivity in the face of even the direst circumstances.

Ehrenreich criticizes the corporate mindset that insists on viewing every failure as an “opportunity” and expects workers to suppress their doubts and express optimism even when asking questions and considering negatives could benefit the company in the long run. She also calls out pastors like Joel Osteen and Joyce Meyer for essentially confusing Jesus with Santa Claus and encouraging their congregations to believe that God will give them everything they want if they can just exhibit the right amount of faith, as if He doesn’t have anything better to do than help you get a good parking place at the mall (something Osteen once gave Him credit for).

And before you go assuming Ehrenreich is out to get the Christians (she’s not!), let me tell you that she also goes after motivational speakers, law of attraction enthusiasts, and those who profess that The Secret really did change their lives. If all you have to do to get what you want is want it badly enough, then it becomes YOUR FAULT when you don’t get it (and YOUR FAULT when bad things happen to you because, hello, you must have manifested them through your thoughts), and it ignores the fact that there are often many people wanting the same thing.

The bottom line here isn’t that optimism is bad; it’s that the insistence on positivity to the exclusion of critical thinking is dangerous on many levels. As usual, Ehrenreich’s latest book is engaging, witty, well-argued, and an all-around great read. ( )

Interesting topic - some chapters were very engaging, others felt less well-researched, but overall an interesting bit of food for thought.

My only major complaint is one I've had about Ehrenreich's work before, which is that she sometimes allows her personal politics to enter into her writing. At one point, she spends 2-3 pages criticizing conservatives for their enthusiasm for positive thinking, while sparing a mere sentence to acknowledge liberal Oprah's one-woman positive thinki...more Interesting topic - some chapters were very engaging, others felt less well-researched, but overall an interesting bit of food for thought.

My only major complaint is one I've had about Ehrenreich's work before, which is that she sometimes allows her personal politics to enter into her writing. At one point, she spends 2-3 pages criticizing conservatives for their enthusiasm for positive thinking, while sparing a mere sentence to acknowledge liberal Oprah's one-woman positive thinking marketing machine. My personal feeling is that well-done journalism will be even-handed. If a writer wishes to let politics come into play, then the topic should be examined from a particular political point of view, and shelved in the "Political Science" section of the bookstore. Not being very much oriented with one major political party or the other, I find it very distracting when anyone tries very hard to assert a stereotypical political view from either side in any discussion. ( )

 In books I’ve read on multicultural manners and information for international students, there is a truism repeated for readers: Americans act happy, but really aren’t; they act friendly even when they are not your friends; they share lots of information with strangers and expect it in return. While I am grossly oversimplifying this notion, it does appear to be true. Ehrenreich asks why we are this way, if it’s good for us, and offers solutions to irrational positivism. She traces the history of the “positive thinking” movement through America’s early history, from Calvinism and the Protestant work ethic through to “The Secret” laws of attraction. Positivism starts as a religion, becomes a business, is fostered by science, and turns back into a religion. She taps into her various experiences (cancer, biology background, youth) to write and research this book, so it could just as easily be seen as a memoir as it could be seen as a social science investigation of the role of positive thinking in psychology, medicine, history, religion, finance, business, and politics.
Lest readers think that she is hopelessly pessimistic, she reminds us that “the alternative to positive thinking is not, however, despair.” She goes on to discuss the importance of realism in all that positive thinking, emphasizing that realism is not the same as pessimism or depression. In this chapter, I wish she had researched and presented information about groups that have been doing this, namely those who make preparedness a part of their lives. Urban homesteaders, people living off the grid, and Mormons all make looking to the future and the present with a positive but realistic attitude of “plan for the worst, hope for the best,” which seems to be what she wants from us.
This book is well researched and cited. Though she often jumps to overly-quick conclusions, she provides lots of well-marked citations that allow her readers to go straight to her sources and draw their own conclusions, a courtesy missing from many social science or pop psychology books. ( )

Sometimes the personal really is political: Ehrenreich's brush with breast cancer abruptly put her in the world of America's cult of positive thinking. This book is an exploration of this particular flavor of magical thinking, and how it affects our lives. ( )

This is a fascinating look at the positive-thinking philosophy in its various forms that has so permeated American culture. Ehrenreich explores the 19th century roots of this cultural trend and examines its pervasive tendrils into the atmosphere around breast cancer treatment, corporate America and the workplace, the newer forms of Christianity (i.e. Joel Osteen), trends in psychology and yes, our economics. She also examines the "science" being used to booster the philosophy and the commercial industry that has grown up to support it. While she is not against the idea of positive-thinking, she makes us aware of its dangers, both culturally and personally, and advocates a healthy skepticism and a 'vigilant realism.' It's a short, thoughtful, 200 pages. ( )

Americans believe in the power of positive thinking -- a bit too much if you ask me, or ask Barbara Ehrenreich. The basic tenet of modern positive thinking is that to get what you want, you just have to really want it, and it will "manifest." Just ask anybody who believes in "The Secret" -- the universe is arranged for your personal convenience! And if you doubt this, please get away from me, because your negative energy is damaging!
When stated clearly (and Ehrenreich is nothing if not clear), modern positive thinking is just too solipsistic and lazy for mature adults to take seriously...or for Americans to resist. The same kind of vapid boosterism animates the careers of Joel Osteen and the average Wall Street hedge fund manager: it's a belief that if we all clap real hard, Tinkerbell won't die, God will cure your cancer, and the housing market will never crash.

I enjoyed this book very much. Another title could be The Oppression of Positive Thinking. Bright-Sided has been misinterpreted as a cynical attack on the benefits of optimism. But social critic Ehrenreich’s criticism is not of having a positive approach to confronting one’s problems, but rather an unhealthy, unrealistic insistence on optimism that can cause real harm. ( )

Given the very interesting topic, I was disappointed that the content was not equally compelling. ( )

Bright-Sided, with its irresistibly sunny cover, is an almost perfect antidote for those of us who can no longer tolerate panoplies of pink ribbons, Prosperity Gospel preachers, motivational affirmations ...not to mention the “law of attraction.” Barbara Ehrenreich shares her experience as a cancer patient inundated with the culture of positivity and goes on to trace our national obsession with positive thinking back to its “dark roots” in our nation’s overcompensation for its early Calvinist mindset.

Ehrenreich has been thorough in her investigation of Positive Psychology, corporate motivational training, prosperous televangelists and the Positive Theology of megachurches. The preachers that she profiles certainly don’t “preach Christ crucified.” She and I would see differently as to the type and extent of the damage wrought by such religion. But I do admire her perceptivity and fairness. A less fair minded author could use the examples cited in the chapter, “God Wants You to Be Rich,” as a jumping off point for a total mockery of all religious thought.

The second to last chapter, “How Positive Thinking Destroyed the Economy,” seemed a bit thin in comparison to the preceding chapters, but that may be only because we are still reaping the rewards of a time when fiscal responsibility was steamrollered by happy thoughts and outright disregard for reality. ( )

Fair disclosure up front: I would like to thank Metropolitan Books for the opportunity to read this work as an Early Reviewer. Others who have read my reviews know that a free copy does not always guarantee a positive review from me. In this case, although the book was not without flaws, I am glad to have read it and recommend it to others. Here Barbara Ehrenreich tackles a variety of topics unified by the common theme of an unhealthy optimism leading to negative consequences.

I enjoyed sections where the author speaks of her own personal experiences rather than penning a text of distanced pontification as so many are apt to do in social criticism. The work starts with personal reflections on the culture of breast cancer, as seen from within as the author deals with her own diagnosis and treatment. Ehrenreich speaks of the bogus science of optimism and an atmosphere that ultimately harms cancer sufferers by blaming their lack of recovery on "negative attitudes." Female patients are infantilized with teddy bears and a never ending sea of pink, and they are cheered to look on the disease as some sort of gift. The author rightly criticizes this cult-like mentality among "survivors."

Next comes an amusing series of observations on self-help/training conferences for aspiring business people and personal coaches. Here the focus is on eliminating all contact with "negative" people or news. Not surprisingly, avoidant truth-dodgers are smacked hard by reality, as evidenced by personal and business financial crises. Particularly dangerous is a New-Agey practice popularized by books like The Secret, which claims that if we only envision success and riches they will magically be brought to us.

The next few chapters constitute a chilling yet entertaining exercise of partisanship. Now I'm no fan of Bush or the Republican party, but it's pretty clear that Ehrenrich wants to blame the ills of the country on traditions of those unlike herself. Thus, American optimism and denial of reality are seen as arising mainly in Christian Science which then gets morphed into evangelical traditions. Next comes a Marxist chapter on the corporate world's use of motivational speakers to paper over its exploitation of everyone but those at the top. This is followed by discussion of the feel-good corporate megachurches, now with 98% less fire and brimstone. The book seems to take a bit of a diversion into positive psychology without political themes, but even this is in preparation for the one-two punch. Positive psychology is tied to "major Republican donors" and idealogues, although it's not clear whether they represent the majority of funding. The reader can sense the push-back of the book's editor when the rhetoric became too overt, with the obligatory sentence, "This is not to suggest that positive psychology, or positive anything, is part of a right-wing conspiracy," even though the book strongly implies exactly that--wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Ehrenreich tosses the editor the bone of liberal Oprah Winfrey to balance her criticism, but Oprah-inspired delusions get only passing mention in a sentence fragment rather than the full chapter they merit based on influence in this country.

While predatory lenders were certainly deserving of blame for the economic meltdown, so were the positively delusional liberals who believed that everyone, no matter of how limited means or irresponsible credit history, was equally *entitled* to a house. The Secret wishes of progressives aren't strongly criticized.

Despite bias, this book succeeds in raising important questions about our reluctance to face unpleasant realities. As the author puts it, "critical thinking is inherently skeptical."

I agree with these concerns and extend them. As our nation faces the challenges of climate change, economic threats from growing China and India, and the impending Ponzi insolvency that is Social Security, we need more people who will ask tough questions. We need legislators and citizens who realize that expansion of health care subsidies to seniors and the uninsured without corresponding cost controls is a recipe for financial disaster. These topics, however, are not addressed in this book. Americans of all political views need to confront bright-sided delusions and to get down to the work of improving our country, and if this book helps to begin that conversation, even that will have been an accomplishment.

If ever a book needed to be published, this one did. I may not agree with all of it, but I do with a lot of it, and think it could be an important first step on having a mature conversation about the dangers of positive thinking. That Ehrenreich can even publish such a thing will strike many as akin to heresy... what could possibly be wrong with positive thinking? Several things, it turns out. The largest is that it tends to blind the practitioner to reallity. The author points out that critical thinking is essential to survival, and critical thinking is inherently skeptical.

Ehrenreich starts out with the area where the dangers of positive thiinking first intruded into her life, her struggle with breast cancer. In the community of women dealing with breast cander, positive thinking is a required secondary disease. It makes it difficult for the women to expess their honest feelings of fear and anger, as that might lead to not beating the disease. And it leads to those who have the disease being blamed for it if they do not beat it... accusations that they didn't try hard enough, didn't get rid of negative thinking, etc.

From there Ehrenreich moves on to the use of positive thinking in business, where its rise happened at the same time as jobs were disappearing overseas and workers lost any sense their job was secure. Remaining workers embraced the positive thinking out of fear that not being sufficiently positive, no matter the circumstances, would lose them their jobs, and often they were correct. And a new breed of managers appeared, who payed less attention to the nuts and bolts of realistic management, and started relying on their intuition and "gut instincts". Being less realistic, they were willing to take more and more risks. For those at the top, the risks paid off until the recent economic collapse, and their experience became more and more isolated from the experiences of the worker, who was experiencing loss of high-paying jobs,loss of benefits, and rising levels of debt.

Ehrenreich also goes into the prosperity gospel preachers and the purveyors of positive psychology Each, she thinks, had a role to play leaidng up to the financial crisis that began in 2008.

In her last chapter, she discusses the topic from an international perspective, and points out that dictatorships of all idealogies have punished people for saying that all is not perfect with life under the dictatorship. So the flight from reality that is a danger of too much positive thinking is not limited to the US or to capitalism.

There are two other related downsides that the author sees with positive thinking. One is that it insists you see your life as good no matter what the circumstances, blinding one to reality. That makes it less likely that people will work to create real change, to address the real problems of poverty, injustice, war, etc. that exist. And by insisting that the person is to blame for a life that isn't happy, it breeds a lack of empathy and compassion.

Is it better to be happy than unhappy? Yes. But happiness comes from making real improvements, not by ignoring problems. ( )

A short, quick read - not brilliant, not bad either. I didn't find the book particularly forceful with its main point (that positive thinking has pulled America down), nor was particularly varied in how this point was expressed - she only really argued that it was detrimental to the economy. As someone sympathetic to her general argument, irritated by the constant stream of witless, pointlessly upbeat pop-psychological office drivel, I was disappointed by how little time she spent on attacking the positive-thinking racket, rather than merely describing it.

I don't know how convincing the book would be to people who were already partial to "the power of positive thinking", or even to those who hadn't really thought about it before. ( )

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I am a fan of Ehrenreich, and the eye-opening accounts of American economic life she built Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch around were provocative and grounded in intensely personal experience. Unfortunately, Bright-Sided moves away from that formula, disappointingly not using Ehrenreich's battle with breast cancer and the breast cancer cabal of happy faces as both jumping off point and narrative framework to explore the Positive Thinking "movement".

Instead, we get her least persuasive book yet; a series of anecdotes from her previous works strung together with overbroad generalizations that she has to rely on too heavily. There is so much that could be done with the platitudinous and mindlessly positive face America puts on every day, but this book fails to capitalize on it.

I was hoping for a scathing rebuttal of the ridiculous message of books like "The Pursuit of Happyness". Instead I get dry generalizations about whether 50 or 80% of Americans blah-blah-blah, all with no real basis for the estimates. ( )

Nary a surprise in this book. Debunking the myths of positive thinking is an interesting task, but the people who need to know that positive thinking can't get you a new house and a new job aren't going to be reading this book.
Her last chapter, on the economy, certainly illustrates perfectly what the problem is; the problem with that is that most of America has no flipping clue what happened, or why it did. If positive thinking is undermining America, ignorance is too, and people who need to read this book will remain ignorant of it.
Also, just not as good as her past few books. Sorry to say it, as I liked them very well.

About: Ehrenreich takes on the seemingly ubiquitous positive psychology, "always be happy and optimistic" mindset that has taken off in recent years. Covering religion, politics, business, health and The Secret, she presents a nicely rounded counterpoint to all smiles all the time, advocating not a negative viewpoint but a realistic "see things as they are" outlook..



Pros: She makes some great points and asks interesting questions, such as why does the U.S. call its nationalism patriotism? In-text cites. Well written

Cons: Lots of names and authors mentioned, I had to flip back in the book a few times to remind myself who was who.

Grade B+ ( )

"Bright Sided" is a short, intense, sometimes sarcastic, but enlightening read. Ehrenreich takes well-deserved aim at the entire edifice of the "positive thinking"-industrial complex in America, in all its forms (religious, economic, scientific, and so forth), as well as providing a nice background on how positive thinking developed in America and its historic antecedents.

The most personal chapter is her best, when she talks about her own breast cancer diagnosis, and the massive amount of pink artificial cheerfulness that was thrust upon her. Here we get a true sense of both the author's anger, as well as her wit and scientific training. This chapter could be a short book all by itself.

The only negatives are that each chapter sometimes reads like an independent essay, without much narrative to tie them together, and there seems to be a certain repetition of themes from her earlier books, especially the economic stuff.. However, these are minor complaints - If you enjoy iconoclastic, sarcastic, but funny essays, and you are not afraid of a bit of, well, realistic thinking, I can "positively" recommend this book. ( )

Barbara Ehrenreich is angry. What's wrong with that? I found her new book, "Bright-sided," to be a refreshing assessment of the origins and pervasiveness of "positive thinking." It helped explain to me why I haven't been comfortable with pursuing a career in life coaching after training. And, despite my comfort within New Thought teaching, why "The Secret" made me decidedly un-comfortable. Perhaps the strongest case that she builds is in the first chapter examining her frustration with the "pink ribbon" world. It's very difficult to go through an illness and feel like a failure because you can't see the 'gift' in it--and equally as damaging to be a family member who feels guilt for not being positive enough to keep another person alive. Although I've not seen the book marketed in this manner, I would highly recommend this book as an anecdote to those who are facing a life challenge and are worried that they are "doing it wrong." Ehrenreich is a brilliant writer whose work is always memorable. ( )

Two of Barbara Ehrenreich's best-selling books are reality journalism, where she put herself in the situations she's writing about. Thus, in 2001 she released Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, a first-hand account of trying to live on the wages of low-paying jobs, such as waitress, hotel maid and Wal-Mart associate. She followed that with Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, in which she examined what it takes to find a white-collar job at a time of downsizing and layoffs.

With that background, you wonder if and how she is going to get inside the topic of her latest book, Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Yet the first chapter is based on as much reality as anyone would want to face. It discusses, as she did in a 2001 article in Harper's Magazine, her diagnosis of breast cancer and her introduction to a culture which views cheerfulness and positive thinking as almost mandatory. It is a sobering introduction to the subject not only for the reader, but for her. As she puts it, one of the things that accompanied her cancer "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."

While the role of positive thinking in American culture isn't a reality journalism topic, Ehrenreich also writes of how she encountered it in the business world. Thus, the various job coaches and the like she encountered in Bait and Switch were an additional introduction into the pervasiveness of the subject in modern America. That she found it both in her personal and professional life helps form the approach of Bright-sided.

Ehrenreich examines the history of "the mass delusion that is positive thinking" in the United States in a variety of personal, cultural and economic settings. While positive thinking has some roots in the so-called Protestant ethic -- hard work will be rewarded -- she explores how it developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thus, the "New Thought movement" helped give rise to not only religious movements like Christian Science but curing ills like "neurasthenia," a syndrome marked by fatigue, withdrawal and depression. By the 20th Century, many ideas sparked by the New Though movement found their way into such well-known works as Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People and Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking.

These concepts pervaded the country and Americans saw them as a way to success and happiness. Over the last 30 years or so, we've seen countless books and advisors urging positive thinking as a business motivator and self-help. Thus, we saw not only "positive psychology" and books like The Secret, but what came to be known as the "prosperity gospel," in which our ability to prosper financially and emotionally hinges on our relationship with God. In fact, Ehrenreich notes, three of the four largest megachurches in the U.S. are based on the prosperity gospel.

Blind-sided is weaker in supporting its proposition that positive thinking has undermined America. The extensively footnoted and sourced book makes clear arguments that the real threat of positive thinking is that it tends to substitute illusion for reality. Perhaps her best example is the recent economic collapse. Brazenly optimistic "experts" were encouraging millions taught by business, church or otherwise of the need for positive thinking in an America in which former U.S. Treasure Secretary Robert Reich observed that "[o]ur willingness to go deep into debt and keep spending is intimately related to our optimism."

Yet any such failing there, it is redeemed by Ehrenreich's call for what she terms "post-positive thinking." She urges that rather than focusing on positive thinking, which is inherently emotional, we must rely upon critical thinking. Seeing things "as they are," she argues, is the only way to approach the real world -- and both the danger and promise it offers.
Human intellectual progress, such as it has been, results from our long struggle to see things "as they are," or in the most universally comprehensible way, and not as projections of our own emotions.

In this book Ehrenreich examines the way that "positive thinking" has relentlessly insinuated itself into American life. Seeing links between the notion that if you "think positive" you will be rewarded with material wealth and good health and other successes, and earlier Calvinist fears of sinful thoughts, Ehrenreich argues that such attitudes and the industries that promote them are ultimately more damaging than beneficial. She looks at the way breast cancer patients are exhorted to fight their disease through positive thinking; at the industry of self-help that's sprung up to promote the concept; at the way positive thinking has been a way of placating exploited workers in business; at the way it is used to by charismatic megachurches to make connections between positive thinking, godly behavior, and material success; and at the role it played in the economic crisis of recent years. Her take-away message is that, rather than being a good thing, such an approach encourages dangerously naive thinking and serves as way to direct people's dissatisfaction inward instead of in more productive channels that might result in actual, beneficial changes. She closes by advocating instead an attitude of "defensive pessimism" or "vigilant realism" - acknowledging and anticipating the real ways that life can be unpredictable or even dangerous, and taking actions to prevent its worst effects - rather than blithely assuming that thinking happy thoughts will save one from the vagaries of life (and that if one suffers misfortune, it's one's own fault for being insufficiently positive). ( )

Masterful columnist and author Barbara Ehrenreich has created another gem in "Bright-Sided." She boldly tackles the notion that there is "power in positive thinking."
Faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer, she says "I didn't mind dying, but the idea that I should do so while clutching a teddy and with a sweet little smile on my face - - well, no amount of philosophy had prepared me for that." Instead of wanting to embrace cancer as a learning experience, she is angry.
As she examines the scientific literature on the efficacy of positive thinking in cancer treatment, she finds that the evidence is lacking, and that blaming the sick for their lack of positive attitude is often hurtful and without purpose.
Ehrenreich further explores the concepts of positive thinking in the contexts of American society, the corporate world, psychology, the world of motivational speaking, and even in today's Christian megachurches.
As usual, her writings are thought-provoking, controversial, intelligent, and interesting.

Free LibraryThing advance reviewer book! Ehrenreich is an entertaining writer with a provocative and fairly persuasive thesis set forth in the book: positive thinking is an individualizing, disempowering concept that leads people to ignore real challenges, for example breast cancer—she starts out with a harrowing look at the culture of pink in the context of her own diagnosis. She’s not always on target—spot the logical problem in the following two consecutive sentences: “To my knowledge, no one knows how antidepressant use affects people’s responses to happiness surveys: do respondents report being happy because the drugs make them feel happy or do they report being unhappy because they know they are dependent on drugs to make them feel that way? Without our heavy use of antidepressants, Americans would likely rank far lower in the happiness rankings than we currently do.”

She does then make the useful point that failure to anticipate 9/11 was not a failure of imagination, as some have stated, given the information available about planned attacks. “[T]here was plenty of imagination at work—imagining an invulnerable nation and an ever-booming economy—there was simply no ability or inclination to imagine the worst.” The positive thinking worldview also slots really well into blaming the victims of misfortune for whining and bringing negative happenings on themselves—there’s an appalling quote from Rhonda Byrne (The Secret) that tsunamis affect only people “on the same frequency as the event.” Positive thinking, by contrast, is supposed to bring us material rewards, regardless of their consequences for other people. And part of the positive thinking advice is to avoid news or other engagement with the problems of the world, and instead treat belief as reality, making unpleasant facts like Iraqi intransigiency or global warming into things that can be wished away. So we end up with politicians and businesspeople who are ruthless without being realistic.

Ehrenreich ends with a ringing endorsement of the scientific method. Science, she posits, is sociable: it’s based on the communicability of premises and replicability of results by other people. The alternative is that you alone validate reality, and that’s a trap. “Why spend so much time working on the self when there is so much real work to be done?” ( )