- Hardcover: 235 pages
- Publisher: Metropolitan Books; 1 edition (13 Oct 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0805087494
- ISBN-13: 978-0805087499
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 15.5 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 431,641 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism
Americans are a “positive” people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.
In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of “positive psychology” and the “science of happiness.” Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.
With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
About the Author
Barbara Ehrenreich is the bestselling author of sixteen previous books, including the bestsellers Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch. A frequent contributor to Harper’s and The Nation, she has also been a columnist at The New York Times and Time magazine.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Ever bought a self-help book that didn't deliver what it promised? Then Bright-sided is for you. This is a forensic diagnosis of why boundless positive thinking turns our minds to mush, deracinates managers, and helps make us willing believers in economic bubbles.
Ehrenreich has several distinct strands to her book. She kicks off with her experience at the age of about sixty when diagnosed with breast cancer. To her amazement she stumbled across on an entire industry in the US devoted to presenting the disease as little short of the best thing that could ever happen to a woman.
Other chapters analyse how the school of mindless optimism was born with Mary Baker Eddy, fed the subprime scandal and has come to infect mainstream corporate management thinking. Anyone who has sat through a toe-curling session by a motivational speaker at a company off-site will chuckle in recognition.
Ehrenreich has evidently survived her brush with cancer without resorting to a whacky, manic outlook. And her book is far from down at the mouth. It is a good read, sceptical but sane, probing yet witty. There are especially amusing interviews with "positive thinking" gurus at various stages of derangement.
One gap is that she does not discuss cognitive behaviour therapy. This is successful in treating depression by eliminating negative thoughts that tend to reinforce themselves - at least the National Health Service, which now stumps up for the treatment, believes so.
In short, this is a book for grown-ups baffled by the credulity of others, and perhaps their own. A life-changing book? No, but its explanation of how fads have entered the mainstream will certainly generate a wry smile.
Ehrenreich has several distinct strands to her book. She kicks off with her experience at the age of about sixty when diagnosed with breast cancer. To her amazement she stumbled across on an entire industry in the US devoted to presenting the disease as little short of the best thing that could ever happen to a woman.
Other chapters analyse how the school of mindless optimism was born with Mary Baker Eddy, fed the subprime scandal and has come to infect mainstream corporate management thinking. Anyone who has sat through a toe-curling session by a motivational speaker at a company off-site will chuckle in recognition.
Ehrenreich has evidently survived her brush with cancer without resorting to a whacky, manic outlook. And her book is far from down at the mouth. It is a good read, sceptical but sane, probing yet witty. There are especially amusing interviews with "positive thinking" gurus at various stages of derangement.
One gap is that she does not discuss cognitive behaviour therapy. This is successful in treating depression by eliminating negative thoughts that tend to reinforce themselves - at least the National Health Service, which now stumps up for the treatment, believes so.
In short, this is a book for grown-ups baffled by the credulity of others, and perhaps their own. A life-changing book? No, but its explanation of how fads have entered the mainstream will certainly generate a wry smile.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A brilliant examination and debunking of the positive thinking field over the past century - I always knew that the stuff peddled by the likes of Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins, Napoleon Hill, Stephen Covey etc. was nonsense and now I know why. The author makes a pretty convincing case for the positive thinking field playing a key role in last year's financial catastrophe and by the end of the book it is clear that the delusion of positive thinking is dangerous - much better to be realistic and rational.
There are a few special mentions for a particular favourite of mine from the field of magical nonsense: Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret". Great stuff.
There are a few special mentions for a particular favourite of mine from the field of magical nonsense: Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret". Great stuff.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm an American married to a Brit: I'm always complaining about the pessimism of the Brit. Now my husband's getting back at me:) Can highly recommend the book!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The downside of being upbeat
One in the eye for the happy-clappy brigade. But is it necessary to take them quite this seriously? Don't worry, Barbara, be happy.
Published 12 days ago by Simon Bendle
Bring me Cordelia!
Positive thinking has become so integrated into the value system of our modern culture, it might seem somewhat odd to find an argument against it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. J. C. Clubb
An excellent antidote to positivity claptrap
I found the book amusing, insightful and to have a excellent dry wit throughout. The reviewer criticizing the book as boring and long I think was looking for a different genre. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Tim Jim D
Tedious
Although the book gets off to an exciting start, it is after a time tedious and difficult to read. I agree with most of Barbara's criticism of the feel good feel healthy crowd,... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Sheila B
Bright Sided or Smile and Die
Very disappointing read. Although the title was interesting and the subject original, this book comes across as very badly researched and very one sided. Read more
Published 19 months ago by annabel
Brilliant critique of fashionable nonsense
In this brilliant book, Barbara Ehrenreich shows how harmful the `positive thinking' movement is, how it means self-blame, victim-blaming and national denial, inviting disaster. Read more
Published on 4 Mar 2010 by William Podmore
Interesting Title, Boring Read.
I have not read any other books written by Barbaea Ehrenreich, but surely they can not be as boring as this. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2009 by Mr. William Oxley
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