Smile! You've got cancer

[www.guardian.co.uk]

Cancer is not a problem or an illness – it's a gift. Or so Barbara Ehrenreich was told repeatedly after her diagnosis. But the positive thinkers are wrong, she says: sugar-coating illnesses can exact a dreadful cost.

If you had asked me, just before the diagnosis of cancer, whether I was an optimist or a pessimist, I would have been hard-pressed to answer. But on health-related matters, as it turned out, I was optimistic to the point of delusion. Nothing had so far come along that could not be controlled by diet, stretching, painkillers or, at worst, a prescription. So I was not at all alarmed when a routine mammogram aroused some "concern" on the part of my gynaecologist.

...snip...

Extracted from Smile Or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America And The World, by Barbara Ehrenreich, to be published by Granta on 14 January at £10.99. To order a copy for £9.99, with free UK p&p, go to [guardian.co.uk] or call 0330 333 6846. Ehrenreich will be delivering a Sunday Sermon on Optimism at Conway Hall, London WC1 on 10 January at 11.30am. For more information, visit [theschooloflife.com].

Yes, I saw a long indepth review of this book from a skeptical viewpoint. Their only concern was that the book slams positive thinking, but being negative (a realist about things as the author claims) is not necessarily all good either (James Randi's site).

I thought about posting something here about this and am glad you took the time to do so!

To me the interesting thing in the review was how she was "shunned" for being negative and not positive at support groups. People saying things like "My breast cancer was the best thing that ever happened to me!" etc.

If you say, "Hey, cancer sucks and I wish I never had it" you are a pariah.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2010 07:03AM by Sparky.

Here is an American article on the dangers of positive thinking:

[fumento.com]

Here is another article on the "perils" of positive thinking:



[www.telegraph.co.uk]

That's OPRAH-essive! A good article about this book:

[thetyee.ca]