Bright-sided

Bright-sided by Barbara Ehrenreich is a razor-sharp critique of America's love affair with positive thinking, as well as an urgent call for a renewed commitment to realism. Americans are a "positive" people—joyous, optimistic, and upbeat: this is both the reputation and the self-image. But, more than a personality trait, positivity is the key to success and prosperity.

Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of your sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude take on the American frame of mind. Evangelical mega-churches preach that you only need to want something to get it, because God wants you to "prosper." Positive thinking is prescribed by the medical profession for its alleged health benefits. New departments of "positive psychology" and "science of happiness" have emerged in academia. Nowhere, however, has optimism taken root more firmly than in the business community, where, as Ehrenreich demonstrates, the refusal to even consider negative outcomes—such as mortgage defaults—has directly contributed to the current economic crisis.

Ehrenreich, known for her myth-busting abilities, exposes the downside of America's proclivity for optimism: On a personal level, it causes self-blame and a morbid obsession with eliminating "negative" thoughts. On a national scale, it has brought us an era of irrational optimism that has resulted in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her most provocative, poking holes in conventional wisdom and bogus science before concluding with a call for existential clarity and courage.

Author: Barbara Ehrenreich

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002SKDGQ0/ref=as_li_tl