The power of negative thinking

[artemisdart]

I'm probably one of the last people in North America to hear about The Secret, "the self-help phenomenon that says we shape the world with our thoughts." In other words, if you just want something enough, it will "manifest" itself to you, no actual effort or planning required! (And people who are in bad situations are at fault because their negative attitudes got them into that mess in the first place!)

Two great articles in Slate.com about this nonsense.

Dear Oprah: Please stop promoting The Secret. Counters The Secret with excerpts from a book called Never Saw it Coming, which argues that "we are individually, institutionally, and societally hellbent on wishful thinking." (Amen!)

Includes an e-mail address at the end where you can send a testimonial about how negative (cautious, pessimistic, worst-case-scenario) thinking saved your hide.

I've Got The Secret: What Happened when I followed The Secret's advice for two months.

Comments

Too simple is always too good to be true.

[aawhitewood.livejournal.com]

This is the problem with taking perfectly good slogans and applying them as writ without wisdom, thought, or responsibility. Take the ancient contrasting wisdom of "He who hesitates is lost" vs. "Look before you leap." The Secret is certainly no secret. After all, we in the psychological profession see every day how powerful a positive attitude and strong belief can be in creating everything from restored health to enhancing good decision making. But, the contrast is that just sitting around and believing that the lottery will send you a winning ticket or being nice to that lousy spouse without discussing the underlying issues will probably result in pain and suffering or worse. I think there is one exception to the too simple being too good to be true rule - if you write a book to convince people that they don't need to do very much to achieve good results, you will likely sell enough copies to never have to work again.

[echsdoc.livejournal.com]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Out of sight, out of mind.