Norman Vincent Peal's 1952 classic The Power of Positive Thinking has come under fire again. But this time, the critics not only argue it doesn't work, but that these positive-thinking mantras can actually hurt...!
Ever since the good pastor penned his dogma, the self-help thing has become a billion dollar industry in our country. There isn't a best-seller book list that doesn't include one or more new texts. PBS is jammed with self-help gurus every night of the week. Corporations spend bundles hiring self-help consultants to pump up their sales forces.
But now some researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada headed by Joanne Wood have tested the idea of self-help, and found it really needs a lot of help. Frankly, they conclude, all these looks-in-the-mirror telling yourself "I am good, I am lovable, I will succeed" are not only useless, but they can be counter-productive. Because when someone with low self-esteem blathers these hopes, he or she finds them so forced, they feel all the worse for it.
So what to do with low self esteem in a world of perfect people....?
Here are a pair of simple starters: (1) admit that virtually everyone has some degree of low self-esteem. Why? Well, for openers, because they are all scared human beings trying to manage in a scary world just like you are! (2) there are actually no perfect people -- star magazines and Hollywood celebrities notwithstanding. Unless, that is, you define "perfection" as a fast car and an even faster press agent!
This is not to say you can't still find The Power of Positive Thinking and that other classic from the 1930s How to Win Friends and Influence People in your local book store. Only if these liturgies of success were really true, why is our world the same old scared angry planet it's always been?
Perhaps the best book we can read is the one we're trying hard to write for ourselves day by day.....
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