Bright-sided

How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America

By: Barbara Ehrenreich

Narrated by: Kate Reading

Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Barbara Ehrenreich's Bright-sided is a sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism

Americans are a "positive" people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.

In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to "prosper" you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness." Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America's penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out "negative" thoughts. On a national level, it's brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

©2009 Barbara Ehrenreich (P)2009 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Kate Reading handles her latest refreshingly askance look at like in America with a nuanced, meticulous narration that ensures listeners will miss none of Ehrenreich's acerbic humor or commonsense look at our penchant for delusion...Reading's skillful performance makes it all a positive pleasure to take in.” —AudioFile, Earphones Award Winner

“Gleefully pops the positive-thinking bubble. . . Amazingly, she'll make you laugh, albeit ruefully, as she presents how society's relentless focus on being upbeat has eroded our ability to ask--and heed--the kind of uncomfortable questions that could have fended off economic disaster.” —FastCompany.com

“Ehrenreich's examination of the history of positive thinking is a tour de force of well-tempered snark, culminating in a persuasive indictment of the bright-siders as the culprits in our current financial mess.” —The Washington Post

Brilliant Antidote

A clear-eyed corrective to the spate of affirmations, denial, and victim blaming the corporate/ecclesiastical complex has been jamming our way. Superbly conceived, written, and read.

Finally!

At last someone's taken on the positive-thinking crowd with some much-needed realism and humor. Ehrenreich doesn't totally discount the power of being positive but neither does she buy into the hype and nonsense of continual positive thinking and creating your own reality. With nice touches of juxtaposition she brings life to what would otherwise be a dull statistic-filled tome.

Bright-Sided Gives Realists Hope

This is a solid book. This looks at the idea that the culture of "positive thinking" has turned into groupthink and why it was key to why we had the giant economic crash we did in recent years.. and is in many ways a psychological pacifier for the masses.

Not that one should be negative all the time - this isn't about depression, or always criticizing - but when dealing with facts is falsely called "pessimism" there's a real problem; when questioning assumptions is "negative thinking," that means an organization is living in delusion and it's time is numbered. And that's what happened at Lehman Brothers and other companies where they could of avoided the problems that befell their companies and our country.

Astounding exposition of our collective insanity!

Starts off a little slow, but then eases into a bracing and vindicating takedown of exactly, how, when, and why, American culture barreled into a new gilded age. This belongs on every shelf containing Gladwell and Piketty, and should bury garbage like the Secret once and for all.

A Bracing Tonic

Let's face facts and stop trying to airbrush our lives. One great quote - ”A corporation is just an aggregation of assets."

Thank you, Barbara!

I listened to "Nickeled and Dimed" years ago and was impressed that this author actually lived the life and wrote about it. Now I am impressed by her realistic portrayal of going through breast cancer treatment which mirrored my own bouts with a lumpectomy and 13 years later a mastectomy on the same breast. Barbara tells it like it is: the powers that be, whether they are medical professionals, employers, or commercial entrepreneurs, aggressively sell their paradigm so that they can market their wares to an indoctrinated public. I prefer not to poison my entire body because of the current pugilistic medical paradigm that makes tons of money for the modern equivalent of practitioners applying leeches and balancing the humors.

A Comeback for Realism

Dr. Ehernreich writes a fascinating account the puritanical roots of positive thinking. Her taking apart of Positive Psychology is superb. She presents an excellent case for us to get out of magical thinking and pay closer attention to what our five senses are showing us about the world.

A must read. This book is full of clear-eyed truth

A must read for any reasonable person. This book is filled with clear-eyed, truthful humour.

Good points BUT plothole

I myself have gotten hundreds of things just by thinking of them. Events canceled, events created, free coffee minutes later when I wanted it, tens of thousands of dollars etc. Yes I keep working on things too but so many things came just by me wanting them - thought only. So sorry to burst that bubble.

Best book I've read in 2020.

I have to admit though that I still can't understand why people are such sheep and drink their Kool aid so easily...