The Bookworm: Bright-Sided

Bright-Sided, by Barbara Ehrenreich. 235 pages. Picador. 2009.

Brest 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. (pp. 43-44)

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, Barbara Ehrenreich was encouraged by fellow sufferers to think positively and even embrace her illness as a blessing, something that could change her life for the better. A positive attitude was the key to fighting cancer, they said. Think happy thoughts and you will recover.

Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, rolled her eyes. A little positive thinking could not hurt, but it was no cure. However, she was alarmed by how many women in her own situation became so intoxicated by the Kool-Aid of positive thinking that they blamed themselves for their suffering. Why were they not getting better? Why had their cancer returned? Because they were not being positive enough.

Bright-Sided is the result of Ehrenreich’s dismay. After summarizing her own experience with the nonsense of positive thinking and the hypnotic power it wields over cancer patients, Ehrenreich, as quoted on the back cover, “exposes the downside of positive thinking: personal self-blame and national denial,” the effects of which now reach every corner of American life, “from Evangelical megachurches to the medical establishment, and, worst of all, to the business community, where the refusal to consider negative outcomes — like mortgage defaults — contributed directly to the current economic disaster.” Over the course of the book she plumbs positive thinking’s Calvinist roots, questions the pseudo-science promoted by superstar motivational speakers (who have reaped the rewards of positive thinking’s commercial rise), and reveals the devastating consequences it has reaped from executive offices.

I heard about Bright-Sided around the time it was published and resolved to get a copy. Needless to say it took me a while. Ehrenreich may be a dyed-in-the-wool “liberal,” but I respect her energetic curiosity, investigative balls, and clear-headed skepticism; she is a champion for women, the working and underclass, and the exploited, which no doubt draws a lot of criticism from business elites and “conservatives.” I was eager to read what she had to say about positive thinking, though it is self-evident by the subtitle: “How Positive Thinking is Undermining America.” Even more telling is the Christopher Hitchens endorsement on the back cover, which ends, “Barbara Ehrenreich scores again for the independent-minded in resisting this drool and all those who wallow in it.”

Bright-Sided is revealing, precise, and damning. Except for the third chapter (“The Dark Roots of American Optimism,” where Ehrenreich traces positive thinking to Calvinism’s pre-determined desolation), the book is engrossing. Having worked in a corporate hellhole, replete with over-energized managers who talked about “the TEAM!” and kept inspirational slogans on their desks, the sections on positive and motivational thinking’s invasion of American corporate culture were especially interesting and scary. Consider this excerpt:

An even more disturbing case comes from Prospect Inc. in Provo, Utah, where in May 2007 a supervisor subjected an employee to waterboarding as part of a “motivational exercise.” The employee, who had volunteered for the experience without knowing what was involved, was taken outside, told to lie down with his head pointed downhill, and held in place by fellow employees while the supervisor poured water into his nose and mouth. “You saw how hard Chad fought for air right there,” the supervisor reportedly told the sales team. “I want you to go back inside and fight that hard to make sales.” (pp 103-104)

According to Ehrenreich, positive thinking has destroyed the economy. She outlines how corporate CEOs have been diluted by delusions of grandeur, thinking of themselves as gifted prophets. If they think positively, the universe will provide them with everything. Instead of studying trends and market data, they use intuition to guide their decisions, placing the fate of their company (and its employees) into the hands of chance. And no one is permitted to consider negative consequences; those who rock the boat are thrown overboard. This is, Ehrenreich writes, what fueled the recklessness leading to the housing market collapse.

Having dealt with depression I can attest that positive thinking cannot hurt and there are personal hardships that can truly be conquered through a “mind over matter” approach. But, as Bright-Sided attests, positive thinking is no cure in itself and unreasonable self-blame is not constructive. Instead, they often mask real causes and problems.

New words I learned: All definitions are courtesy of my MacBook dictionary. Churlish: “rude in a mean-spirited and surly way.” Flit: “move swiftly and lightly.” Tautology: “the saying of the same thing twice in different words, generally considered to be a fault of style.” Efficacy: “the ability to produce a desired or intended result.” Adjuvant: “(of therapy) applied after initial treatment for cancer, esp. to suppress secondary tumor formation.” Iatrogenic: “of or relating to illness caused by medical examination or treatment.” Tchotchke: “a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional; a trinket.” Neophyte: “a person who is new to a subject, skill, or belief.” Harridan: “a strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman.” Coterminous: “having the same boundaries or extent in space, time, or meaning.” Neuralgia: “intense, typically intermittent pain along the course of a nerve, esp. in the head or face.” Analgesic: “(chiefly of a drug) acting to relieve pain.” Imprimatur: in this sense it means “a person's acceptance or guarantee that something is of a good standard.” Ineluctable: “unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable.” Paroxysm: “a sudden attack or violent expression of a particular emotion or activity.” Ephemera: “things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time.” Undergird: “secure or fasten from the underside, esp. by a rope or chain passed underneath.” Acquisitive: “excessively interested in acquiring money or material things.” Cormorant: “a large diving bird with a long neck, long hooked bill, short legs, and mainly dark plumage. It typically breeds on coastal cliffs and is noted for its voracious appetite.”