Bright-sided

How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

By Barbara Ehrenreich
(Metropolitan Books, Hardcover, 9780805087499, 256pp.)

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

Categories: General, Sociology - General, Anthropology - Cultural

---

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.

---

When author Barbara Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was bombarded with wildly optimistic, inspirational phrases. But a cheerful outlook, she argues, does not cure cancer. In her new book, Bright-Sided, Ehrenreich explores the negative effects of positive thinking. More at NPR.org

---

Rather than focus on some particular tool of oppression -- like religion or television -- that's misled the masses into believing they're happy, Ehrenreich trains her ire on happiness itself. Bright-Sided is a sustained attack on enforced optimism and positive thinking, on the belief that speaking no evil is an effective way to ward off evil.

---

“Deeply satisfying. . . Motivational speakers, positive prayer, the new Journal of Happiness Studies—these are not the makers of happy, well-adjusted psyches. Instead, Ehrenreich argues convincingly that they are the symptoms of a noxious virus infecting all corners of American life that goes by the name ‘positive thinking.’”—Hanna Rosin, The New York Times Book Review “In precisely crafted, hard-hitting language throughout, [Ehrenreich] explains how hordes of optimistic American consumers, under the spell of 'new age' authors and psychologists, television preachers and celebrities, visualized and wished (with a lot of help from credit cards) for so much stuff that now they are enmeshed in unwished-for bankruptcy in record numbers.”—Tom Dodge, The Dallas Morning News “Insightful, smart, and witty. . . She makes important points about what happens to those who dare to warn of the worst.”—BusinessWeek
"Ehrenreich convinced me completely. . . I hesitate to say anything so positive as that this book will change the way you see absolutely everything; but it just might."—Nora Ephron, The Daily Beast "Ehrenreich delivers a trenchant look into the burgeoning business of positive thinking."—Publishers Weekly, starred review "Bright, incisive, provocative thinking from a top-notch nonfiction writer."—Kirkus, starred review "Wide-ranging and stinging look at the pervasiveness of positive thinking. . ."—Booklist, starred reivew “We're always being told that looking on the bright side is good for us, but now we see that it's a great way to brush off poverty, disease, and unemployment, to rationalize an order where all the rewards go to those on top. The people who are sick or jobless—why, they just aren't thinking positively. They have no one to blame but themselves. Barbara Ehrenreich has put the menace of positive thinking under the microscope. Anyone who's ever been told to brighten up needs to read this book.”—Thomas Frank, author of The Wrecking Crew and What's the Matter with Kansas? “Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil: please read this relentlessly sensible book. It’s never too late to begin thinking clearly.”—Frederick Crews, author of Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays  “Barbara Ehrenreich’s skeptical common sense is just what we need to penetrate the cloying fog that passes for happiness in America.”—Alan Wolfe, author of The Future of Liberalism  “In this hilarious and devastating critique, Barbara Ehrenreich applies some much needed negativity to the zillion-dollar business of positive thinking. This is truly a text for the times.”—Katha Pollitt, author of The Mind-Body Problem: Poems  “Barbara Ehrenreich scores again for the independent-minded in resisting this drool and all those who wallow in it.”—Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything “In this hard-hitting but honest appraisal, America’s cultural skeptic Barbara Ehrenreich turns her focus on the muddled American phenomenon of positive thinking. She exposes the pseudoscience and pseudointellectual foundation of the positive-thinking movement for what it is: a house of cards. This is a mind-opening read.”—Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time “Once again, Barbara Ehrenreich has written an invaluable and timely book, offering a brilliant analysis of the causes and dimensions of our current cultural and economic crises. She shows how deeply positive thinking is embedded in our history and how crippling it is as a habit of mind.”—Thomas Bender, author of A Nation Among Nations: America’s Place in World History