TOW #20: Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America by Barbara Ehrenreich (IRB, written)

How many times have you heard the trite saying, “Think Positively!” when you have to deal with the worst situation? This week, I read Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America, which successfully argues against positive thinking and for realistic thinking. Despite the encouraging saying “Think Positively,” Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America reveals that positive thinking does not alleviate the situation. She uses logos to prove her points, particularly a study done in California. The study proved that there was a high correlation between death of children and positive thinking. Positive thinking leads to more frequent risk taking tendencies. Also, more realistic teenagers are less likely to become depressed. These teens are more able to deal successfully with the harsh realities. Here, Ehrenreich notes again, the dangers of positive thinking. People naturally avoid the negative truth, because they are scared to get hurt by the negative truth. Ehrenreich does not argue for negative thinking either. She believes that the best is to see the reality. We have to be aware of the reality, and try to make things better, not fall into positive fallacies. Ehreich started to question positive thinking when she was first diagnosed with cancer. She was disturbed by the positive thinking during her years of struggle. In my opinion, I think Ehrenreich’s strategy worked. She argued against the fallacies of positive thinking very effectively with uses of realilife examples. Also, she successfully responded to counter arguments by proving that she also does not support negative thinking. If she did not note positive thinking, her arguments would have been less effective. However, at some points, she is a bit too negative, she does not allow any whiners. In conclusion, we want objectivity. We expect doctors, teachers, or anyone that we pay to get service from to be objective. We should expect no less from ourselves; we should be objjective when dealing with our own struggles and problems.