Volume CXXXI, Number 21 April 12, 2002 f

Tyranny of the good
CHRISTOPHER SMITHWICK
STAFF WRITER

At a lecture held Tuesday entitled "The Tyranny of the Positive Attitude in America," Barry N. Wish Professor of Psychology and Social Studies Barbara Held discussed the exponential growth of the self-help industry in turn-of-the century America and the overwhelming push for a positive attitude that underlies it. Professor Held reacted to this trend in saying that it can cause more perils than promise for many people. The talk was given to the Jung Seminar as an encore presentation she gave to the Friends of Bowdoin in October.

According to Held, the tyranny lies in the pervasive attitude that we must remain positive at all times and at all costs. It is found in our most common aphorisms, including "Cheer up! Things could be worse," "Stop complaining, it's not that bad," and "Smile, look on the bright side," and in that ubiquitous yellow smiley face that adorns T-shirts and bumpers from coast to coast. But the tyranny of the positive attitude is most present in self-help books based on some form of positive thinking.

"Most of the books which make sweeping claims to change people's lives dramatically for the better have not been put to any systematic empirical test," says Held. "Moreover, if the advice given in these books really worked," she adds, "why do we have so many?"

Held invited listeners to simply look on the shelves at bookstores. Self-help books that continue to sell well include Norman Vincent Peale's "The Power of Positive Thinking" and Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People." The self-help industry reportedly makes 2.48 billion dollars every year, according to Newsweek Magazine.

Held also said there are costs of accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative, as many of these books tell readers to do, so that the tyranny of the positive attitude may work paradoxically to lower our sense of well-being. Some of the costs include feeling guilty or defective when you can't be happy or feel good. "I am not against optimism, hope, or being positive," says Held. "When being positive works for you, be positive, but we should not be forced to be positive."

Professor Held is the author of "Stop Smiling, Start Kvetching: A 5-Step Guide to Creative Complaining," published in 2001. Kvetching is a Yiddish term referring to venting, and should not be mistaken for whining. Creative kvetching involves expressing to a willing listener the inevitable pain of living.
"Putting our pain into words allows us to organize and possibly come to a new understanding of it, and we are then less likely to ruminate over our pain," says Held.

The tyranny of the positive attitude manifests itself not only in popular culture, but also in the positive psychology movement that has emerged in the psychology profession. "I am not saying there is no role for therapists," says Held, "but some people would not need therapists if more people would listen empathically. Would there be such a demand for professional empathy if we had more empathic listeners in our everyday lives?"

Held also used cross-cultural studies of the US and Japan to support her argument. "In the US," she says, "a sense of subjective well-being is linked to self-esteem and an inflated view of oneself. In Japan, however, a capacity for self-criticism is what gives people a sense of well-being." Therefore, achieving a sense of happiness by way of seeing yourself in positive terms is not universal.

Held referred to Wellesley Professor Julie Norem, author of "The Positive Power of Negative Thinking," who uses defensive pessimism as her own preferred coping strategy. Held says defensive pessimists set unrealistically low expectations for their performance on a task, think of everything that could go wrong, and then think about ways of avoiding those pitfalls. This is a strategic option that works for some people by lowering debilitating anxiety.

"People should be allowed to use the coping strategy that works for them," concludes Held. In reaction to Norem's claim that "One size does not fit all," Held simply responds: "Why should it?"

Professor Held is a licensed clinical psychologist who has been teaching at Bowdoin College since 1979. She is also the author of "Back to Reality: A Critique of Postmodern Theory in Psychotherapy."