More Reading, Less TV

This is the kind of book that confirms we all need to do more reading and turn off our cable TV. We will never be able to manage our own society if we park ourselves in front of the opiate blue screen of MSM TV. But if we read books like the one discussed here, we have a chance. Like Not a Conspiracy Theory by Donald Gutstein, Ms. Rupps review demonstrates that there is a long, sordid history behind 'happiness' propaganda.

Great article and I'll look for this book.

I'm normal after all

I loved this article and will read the book for sure. Specifically because I'm tired of all this positive flood of books and messages of positive this and positive that - as if there would be something wrong with us.

If someone has a different opinion that is not accepted by the mainstream then it is labeled as negative. Totally absurd.

Canadians maybe polite but I would say they are just afraid of confrontation of differing opinions. They don't want to step on anyone's toe. (sigh)OhCanada.

Coming from Eastern Europe and being labeled in Canada as a 'complainer' and 'negative' Oh well. If that bothers anyone that is their problem.

One thing is for sure. In the communist system everyone knew that they are being controlled or there were attempts for control.

In this big 'free' society called capitalism everyone is being blind sided. You have freedom and you can do whatever you want. Yeh, right. This is a police society and it is coming increasingly more so. The gap between rich and poor is growing threefold and no one is worried. A perfect ground to develop dictatorship under the disguise of big names like freedom, individualism and etc.
In this regard, the communist system was at least more predictable and more honest.

Pablum for the masses

All the positive trends work because as long as you believe you can find verification in even the faintest coincidences.

A good example is astrology, a "science" that many check into every morning, more or less for the fun of it, and nodding in agreement when it tells you how clever you are!

Another example that has even more followers is religion, but that is of course "negative" to mention.

don't blame all religion!

It's easy to scapegoat religion or "god" because there are so many devious and bad proponents of either. There's a huge qualitative difference between the "prosperity preachers" Ehrenreich refers to and the religious people I know from my various activist days. I was very involved in peace, anti-nuke, social justice groups dating back several decades, and the one constant is that there was always a healthy representation from the religious community, whether they Quakers, radical Catholics, street ministry preachers and a lot of believers who knew injustice when they saw it.

The real insidious part of the spiritual community that has plagued us with a lot of this positive thinking nonsense is the New Age movement. From astrology to 'Birkenstock Buddhists' and all herbal snake oils in between - what racket this has all become. Facing a serious personal economic crisis, job loss, home foreclosure or mental health problems? No problem, just do some hot yoga, take lots of Omega-3 and find your inner self... oh, and Free Tibet, too! What a bunch of crap.

Looking forward to reading Ehrenreich's book.

placebo effect

"The woman has a PhD in cell biology, so she knows the difference between knowledge and belief. She also knows that the so-called research these people cite about how happy thoughts affect your health is just so much superstition."

So the placebo effect is just nonsense I suppose dispute wide acceptance in the scientific community. Seems she is producing her own form of psychobabble.

Horrid and Hurtful Industry

I have a Google alert on "Landmark Forum" - today this article came up and 2 minutes later another which headlined "Self-Help Course May Have Led to Suicide" (Beliefnet).

The industry is not only a farce. It's dangerous.

I was one of those who was a rising star in a startup company. Then the owner went to LANDMARK FORUM and "requested" the whole staff go. After all, that is their goal, for you to recruit your friends, family, and co-workers to the "transformational" program.

I was the only one who stood up and said NO I won't go, and then suddenly my job was given to someone else, I was "reassigned" and told I was not a team member.

The scary part about this industry is that it is infiltrating corporations as "leadership training." And they now have programs for law enforcement. What next, the government?

"The Secret" is left-wing propoganda

Positive thinking is left-wing liberal propaganda that grew out of the 1960s hippie movement designed to make society pursue unrealistic socialist goals such as investing more money trying to educate low IQ communities and bring them out of poverty rather than facing the negative reality that we're not all equal and that education is waste of time and money for a huge segment of America. The positive thinking can-do spirit helped propel Obama into office with his positive slogans "Yes We Can" and the "Audacity of Hope". This egalitarian positive thinking message is everywhere from theories of Emotional Intelligence to Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory to Malcom Gladwell's belief that anyone can be a genius if they love something enough to practice it for 10,000 hours. Books like "The Secret" also serve the left-wing agenda because they created a kind of secular spirituality which has caused America to abandon organized religion in droves. Who needs God and the Bible when you have positive thinking?

Positive thinking "left wing propaganda"?

You really must be joking. It sounds more like part of the scam the U.S. Republican Party would be promoting. Most of the peddlers are just trying to get rich promoting a snake oil of the mind. That's the opposite of left wing.

left-wing propaganda sells

Just because positive thinking is a lucrative industry doesn't change the fact that it's extreme left-wing propaganda. Al Gore made a hundred million dollars off us environmentalism and the last time I checked that's a left-wing cause. Most left-wing ideas are good for business because they are politically correct and confirm the egalitarian ideal that anyone is capable of greatness regardless of their genetic herritage and IQ. See the popularity of Malcom Gladwell.

jacobmas, uber-troll

Jacobmas comes off as a classic Internet troll, or at very best, a lunatic fringe neo-con who is even further right of Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck, who equates everything left of that as a communist-liberal conspiracy. There is no reasoning with such people.

Avoid feeding this troll.

Gotcha Barney

Enough said.

No Barney

Actually I dislike Rush Limbaugh just as much as I dislike the cult of positive thinking. I am opposed to all forms of extremist political propaganda in the media whether it's extreme right wing propaganda (Glen Beck) or extreme left wing propaganda (The Secret)

50-50

I agree there is a lot of psycho-babble out there and I'm not the type of person to take a Landmark course or read a self-help book, I'm just way too non-conformist, but I also don't deal well with people who are always negative. Perhaps because I've lived in foreign countries and got a different perspective, and can spot a whiner a mile away (Canada has a lot of them).

I do believe in staying optimistic even when things are rough, unless they are really rough- health issues or great losses, then I think it's unhealthy to not address the need to feel miserable!

I agree wholeheartedly with the poster who said:
"Canadians may be polite but I would say they are just afraid of confrontation of differing opinions. They don't want to step on anyone's toes"... haha. Too true! I've gotten myself into a few sticky situations because of my fondness for (healthy) debate and confrontation!

Barney, now I really understand.

Oprah is a communist because she advocates positive thinking and supported Obama, Simple really. I wonder if she knows that.

The Olympic Ideology

Ask yourself how many times you'll hear a winner interviewed in the Olympics, trying to pretend that s/he is like everyone else, uttering platitudes like, 'you can do anything if you put your mind to it', or even more sickening things like, 'you can do anything if you have the courage to follow your dreams', as though people who don't win are cowards.

Apart from the impact on people of low or normal abilities, people that are athletically or artistically gifted sell their own abilities short by pretending that they're everyman/everywoman.

The fact is, I'm not Gretzky/Jordan/Woods, and no amount of positive thinking is going to change that. This ideology really is like an opiate, designed to keep us contentedly beavering away....

brainwash is brainwash

Ohhh Barney!
I read you, all the other religions are bogus and only your cult make sense!

Have you considered that terrorists commit suicide believing they will have 40 virgins at their disposal, once they pull the trigger?
Their faith has more followers than yours, go figure that!

Maybe you feel you are one step above such silly thinking? Now consider that maybe there are others who consider your level of trust is unrealistic?

It is all a matter of how we were brainwashed as kids;
Hitler knew the formula and the kids who was brainwashed in his Hitlerjugend have to this day a distorted view of the world!

too much positive thinking

There IS another side to this story. Because we live in a materialistic society, the authentic presence of Spirit moving in our lives has been twisted all out of shape.
But true goodness exists, who or what-ever we know as god exists, and living in awareness that this world is not all there is will contribute to a better life in many ways.
As an example, I think of Tommy Douglas, who besides being a very effective politician was also a Baptist minister. Douglas was truly a good man, so much so that we think of him now as "The Greatest Canadian." Tommy Douglas knew there was more to this life than chasing after material goods, and he lived his own life in a kind of homage to that knowledge. All of us would be well advised to do the same.

alive and not well

alive,

I actually said zero about my own religious affiliations, or if I had any at all. I only stated that there are people who don't buy the capitalist dream / positive thinking garbage, and they happen to be coming from a religious viewpoint. Short version: there are people of faith who do good, often radical things; and there are those who do the opposite. If you want to argue that Quakers and radical Catholics. liberation theologians and protestants like Martin Luther King Jr (or preachers like our health care founder Tommy Douglas) were somehow wrong, bad or any more brainwashed than you because they believed in god, go ahead and dig that hole for yourself. I think you'll be barking up the wrong tree.

From the religious viewpoint.

There are people who don't buy the capitalist dream ofr the fundamentalist view of a religion. Consider the eight principles of the Canadian Center for Progressive Christianity. Scary stuff?.

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we:

1. centre our faith on values that affirm the sacredness and interconnectedness of all life, the inherent and equal worth of all persons, and the supremacy of love expressed actively in our lives as compassion and social justice;

2. engage in a search that has roots in our Christian heritage and traditions;

3. embrace the freedom and responsibility to examine traditionally held Christian practices and beliefs, acknowledging the human construction of religion, and in the light of conscience and contemporary learning, adjust our views and practices accordingly;

4. draw from diverse sources of wisdom, regarding all as fallible human expressions open to our evaluation of their potential contribution to our individual and communal lives;

5. find more meaning in the search for understanding than in the arrival at certainty, in the questions than the answers;

6. encourage inclusive, non-discriminatory, non-hierarchical community where our common humanity is honoured in a trusting atmosphere of mutual respect and support;

7. promote forms of individual and community celebration, study, and prayer which use understandable, inclusive, non-dogmatic, value-based language by which people of religious, skeptical, or secular backgrounds may be nurtured and challenged;

8. commit to journeying together, our ongoing growth characterized by honesty, integrity, openness, respect, intellectual rigor, courage, creativity, and balance.

maudibones ...

said:

Uh huh. And crystal rocks will cure cancer, water remembers, and Oprah just loves us all just so darn much it makes our toes twinkle like little rosey-poseys.

Utter nonsense and empty blather.

The Secret, spiritus mundi, positive thinking, afterlife, religions, et al, equal little more than bunk designed to molify the frightened ignorant masses and give those who have no real hope something to grasp onto so they may pretend that they have something other than empty misery to look forward to after all and hence stop the worrisome potential for any rebellious rumblings of the downtrodden many.

It's all just a 649 lotto in the sky.

It's really not as bad as all that.

"...designed to molify the frightened ignorant masses and give those who have no real hope something to grasp onto so they may pretend that they have something other than empty misery to look forward to after all..."

Real hope for what? Some other world than the one we have found to live in? Nobody is completley hopeless, unless one defines hope in some narrow prescribed way, that only allows certain goodies to be ones worth hoping for. All things are indeed relative. Maybe the book we need to read in order to gain perspective is 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'. We are somewhere on a scale, and there is up and down on it, as each of us defines these directions for himself. Most of the time, we make smaller movements up or down, and sometimes bigger ones, but life is always either a movement or a dynamic equilibrium. If anything is damaging to our grip on life, it is the notion of it somehow being possible to 'have it made', so we will never have to hit the road running again. This precise thing, hitting the road running, is what we are designed for: Do or die. The dream of a static state of bliss is like a poison of the mind, and those who seemingly achieve it by becoming filthy rich or famous, or both, don't somehow seem to have a better grip on getting well through every day than the rest of us.

Religion is only good for one thing: restorative effect on the mind. We need to reset ourelves once in a while, and tuning out of the usual scope and into a different one is refreshing and helpful, aids us in seeing things from a different angle. You may not believe this, but sheer intellectual rational effort is nevertheless one-sided and stays in a groove. Once in a while, we need to let go of the tight control we usually keep, and fly a little. We can come back having seen more, like the way we suddenly see all the bloddvessels in our retina, when we send light into our eyes from a different angle. They were there all the time, but we didn't see them, for they had become dead habit.

New age is just a terminology and actually often descriptive of a mishmash of stuff that is very old age indeed. I would suggest you try to read the Voluspa and the Havamal, in translation into modern English, and maybe you will recognize there much of the foundations of hard-nosed pragmatism, as well as sense of humor and love of life, which underlies our western culture to a much higher degree than imported stuff of Hebrew/Greek/Roman origin.

If all else fails, and right now it seems to, since we can get into this kind of phony mess, go back to the roots. Only by knowing where we came from, and seeing where we are now, can we possibly find a workable way foraward.

It's interesting...

...most tyrannies in the world begin their reign of terror by persecuting religious beliefs.

Dorothy ...

said:

Actually, I think you have a very good point. To use the simpler vernacular, I need to lighten up from time to time, and hence expand my horizons.

Cheers.

OMG. finally a sensible

OMG. finally a sensible response to the drivel that assaults me at check out stands and is uttered from the mouths of those I love who are less critical and easily duped by such dross as Miss Oppressive spews at them.
Going through a thoroughly difficult bit of life in the last few months, I note these good folks who love me had nothing better than piffle platitudes intoned like the czarina of emotional schlock dishes to the pathetically dependent marshmallows slumped on her studio set sofa.
And yes, I DO know EST. I tried out that crap back in the '80's, lost a brother and sister in law to it, and nearly fell for the "just change your story, make a suck space to grow into (wordspeak for: over indulge, over spend and the universe will unfold and provide every rinky tink your lil ole heart desires). Turns out it was all rotten untruth. Not to mention, Werner Ehreart was a abusing SOB to his wife and children; that is another story, uh, that the guy just couldnp;t change!).
Along with Chris Hedges (Empire of Illusion, 2009 Pulitzer), this writer seems to be glaring her high beam where a lot of folks would rather not go maybe.
I, however, look forward to reading her POV.
Finally, some truth tellers out there to balance all the shite one sees and experiences, even with one's loved ones.
By the way, the vestiges on EST and Landmark training are alive and well in the talk speak programming of leadership teachers and graduates from Royal Roads University and effect the corporate outlooks of many, many organisations who have grads from the management level courses offered. These grads are within the ranks of high-ranking staff and officials at VIHA, municipal governments and in countless places of business in many communities. The "cult of the individual", and the view points of these self actualizing high achievers effect the culture of so many institutions it is frightening. The anecdotes of previous respondent who was passed over in job placements for refusing to attend Landmark is akin to kicking out the kid who won't pay the social cost for entree into the cool group.
One can often tell a snake by the shoes she is wearing.
And that button down collar may be containing a Parsel-tongued serpent with a pasted sunny disposition.
Gimme a real straight talking carmudgeon any day and that will guarantee a heart-felt, genuine conversation, I'd wager. Thanks for the heads up on this book and author.

canadians are not polite -

canadians are not polite - they are thin-skinned and cannot take criticism. Make that English Canada - no problem with criticism and arguing growing up in Montreal.

Did you know the word "Pacification" was a theme for the formation of the Canadian state - that creating pacified citizens was one of the goals and not pacify in terms of war, but if dissent? The Canadian state was formed after rebellions in both upper and lower canada.

Probably not because it is not really talked about - especially in anglo canada. And my first language is english, just fyi.

Despite Hateful Glares From Girlfriends...

I've always maintained that Oprah is completely full of herself.

RiverEyes

Hi RiverEyes- thanks for you comments. You mentioned something I'm researching. Could you get in touch with me at

if you see this note?

Thanks so much.

Thank you for this Shannon

But I hope you won't stop with this. There's another whole area which seriously needs debunking as well - the myth of scientific industrial management.

A good place to start your research would be to look at the guru and founder of the whole depressing mess - Frederick W Taylor of Harvard.

You might want to begin with Matthew Stewart's excellent primer on the subject: The Management Myth: Why The Experts Keep Getting It Wrong.

Stewart describes how Taylor manufactured data, lied to his clients and inflated his results. The whole academic exercise known as scientific management is a laughable lie - not all that different from the positivist crap Ehrenreich describes so well.

And Stewart is only a jumping off point – there’s lots more information available it you’ll have a look.

Keep up the good work!

as RiverEyes alluded to...

the new management is called 'leadership'. Those who can afford it buy credentials (not only at Royal Roads) that assure their employers/ potential employers that they have the right stuff...the right stuff, of course, being that professional, compassionate look as you announce layoffs of one third of your staff, and of course you will forgo your bonus...
The 'genuine', the 'heartfelt' becomes rarer every day...and I, too hope you will keep writing about it Shannon. Enjoyed these posts, thanks.

I occurred to me.

As I read the article and the posts above, I wonder how positive we would all be thinking if we lived Oprah's lifestyle. I think we would all exude positiveness out of every pore. So what is the purpose of all these pampered celebrities telling the masses that we should be positive?

"canadians are not polite -

"canadians are not polite - they are thin-skinned and cannot take criticism."

You bastard!

for Gods sake

Sure some religious people have done good things, so what?
My Dad was a good man and he had blue eyes, so consequently anyone with blue eyes are good?

Sorry: eyecolour or beliefs has nothing to do with anything.

Brainwash is brainwash as I said, even some of the hitlerjugend wound up doing good things I am sure.

Some bring forth Tommy Douglas as an example, maybe forgetting that he insisted that homosexuals are sick people?
Clearly he had compassion and fought bravely for the poor people, but do not make him out as a saint, and try to realize that he gave up his ministry because God was of no use in his fight.

My point is simply that religion is just another form of mass induced BS aimed in this case at keeping the masses mollified.

bright-sided coin

Unfortunately, Barbara Ehrenreich doesn’t get it either. The 19th century's faith-healing movement, that resulted in the endless chain of self-help movements like Landmark, EST, Quality Circles, The Secret and Ophrah Idolatry is really just one side of the “distortional thinking” coin.

It seems Ehrenreich hasn’t made the connection between: how we are trained to think distortionally, judgmental labeling and the power contained by the judgments we use.

The fact is, think-yourself-well is a reality. However, when we try to connect outcomes (improved health, wealth, Gladwell success) and our behaviour to religion or other cultish belief systems the wires that link judgment with reality get crossed.and problems arise.

At the heart of the coin is the fact folks are unaware that they are responding to cues (drummed into their thinking from the time of birth, and maybe before) that trigger memories of pain or pleasure. And much like Pavlov’s dogs, they drool on command

Language is, singularly, the greatest cue-bearing tool available in the social control tool box. Our use of loaded, judgmentally laden cues trigger responses that control seeking segments of society understand and capitalize on.

Unfortunately, rational thinking, unless it is linked to an understanding of language’s emotive power, and how folks are trained to think, can be just as magical.

KWD ...

said:

Do you have any credible factual evidence at all to back that up?

SicPreFix

The evidence is ubiquitous. Visit any counselling (tauma) center where folks are seeking relief from anxiety but they haven’t been physically harmed.

When you are triggered by judgement, or a threat to your well being (you fill in the blank with the appropriate label or criticism), do you think your response is caused by the person that offered the judgement, or is it your response to how you are thinking? If your response is painful body feedback (that tense feeling in the pit of your stomach, increased heart rate, anxiety or neck muscle pain, for example), and you weren’t kicked, punched or bitten, it must be because you are responding to past experiences that were linked to pain, and most importantly, to the cue words or judgements linked to the pain.

Looking at it from a broader perspective, thinking-yourself-well could just as eaily become thinking-yourself-ill.

As you think, so you tend to feel.

Baloney!

People who think they're 'sick' can also 'think' themselves well?

Please, wake me when you have a real example.

The only persons who benfit from earthy scams like Christian Science, The Secret, and Scientology are the manipulators who 'run' the system.

Putting down mental health issues to this kind of hocus pocus is an insult to 'sick' people and the legitimate professionals who TRY to help them.

If thinking herself well had any credence don't you think queen Oprah could think herself thin?

For the thirteenth time!

Putting down mental health issues?

Hardly.

I think we agree (unless I've misread your response) that emotional dysfunction is an illness, and more often than not a product of distortional thinking.

Reality based cognition is the tool used to expose the thinking that underlies most mental health issues. In fact, the point I was trying to make is that reality based cognition (understanding the way you think) is a far cry from the power of positive thinking or trying to think yourself thin.

KWD's point has merit

Firstly, to SicPreFix, the best evidence we have on the relationship between mental health wellness and what KWD is suggesting is the placebo effect. Like it or not, research shows the placebo effect is a very real phenomenon.

G West, "legitimate professionals" in the counselling and psychological fields routinely employ a highly successful method known as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), not because of some mystical belief in the power of positive thinking, but because of repeated scientific studies demonstrating its efficacy! For some mental ailments, CBT has proven far more effective than the use of powerful psychotropic drugs. CBT helps patients identify emotional triggers and negative patterns to thought, which if they work on changing can go a long way toward recovery.

KWD, I question your claims that Barbara Ehrenreich "doesn't get it." Have you read her book cover to cover? I have not. Maybe she addresses your points in a chapter or two. Certainly, the points you make and her points (as illustrated in this above article) are not in contradiction. We're taking about limited clinical contexts related to mental health vs sociological/political contexts of snake oil sales, correctly exposed by Ehrenreich.

A fun analogy to this is quantum mechanics, which is often misrepresented by New Age qwacks to prove some spiritual point about the power of consciousness. While "quantum mysticism" and quantum mechanics share the same origins, the conclusions reached are very different! Water molecules can be influenced by thought? Quantum physics implies that consciousness is the ground of all being? Nonsense. Just because the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is twisted out of context to draw bogus conclusions does not mean said principle is wrong or bogus!

KWD

No offence meant.

I was addressing the problem with the kind of 'thinking' Oprah and Tom Cruise and Mary Baker Eddy espouse...I have little problem with ‘talking’ as a part of a real clinical approach but I'm not blind to the fact that, over time, cognitive therapy just hasn't panned out to be a panacea for anything except the investment accounts of 200 dollar per hour therapists.

Even as a methodology for addressing such things as smoking and over-eating there is very little to be said for such approaches - let alone addressing 'real' mental illness.

In my view, there is a lot to be said - especially for tackling such things as clinical depression - for a combination of carefully administered antidepressants which act by remediating negative affective biases in depression and anxiety. Such changes are not, in my view, accessible to subjective therapy alone but they can be helpful in combination with certain kinds of drug therapies.

the placebo effect...etcetera

The placebo effect has been demonstrated to occur in about 40 % of responses to medication, and is even higher in the case of anti-drepessant medication, as my physician observes.Cognitive behavioural therapy and variations therof have been shown to be effective in treating mental illness...it is a firm principle of any holistic approach to disease treatment that both mind and body play a role in all diseases. Shall we tell that to children in developing nations suffering from the ravages of myriad nutritional deficiencies?
This cult of 'magical thinking', as Shannon calls it, has real consequences for western society."A sound mind in a healthy body' taken to its extreme becomes you are responsible for your own illness (and cure)...whether mental illness, obesity, or cancer...obviously, it is just not that simple. In the case of children suffering malnutrition, giving food is the first 'treatment' - but in the case of anorexia, mind must be treated before body can heal. This is worth reflecting on, because clearly anorexics could 'cure' themselves by eating, and many don't...
In my 'leadership' studies, both undergraduate and graduate, there is an intense focus on inculcating the 'right' attitude in one's team...I am thinking back to a case study problem which was actually a question of ethics...yet most of the participants thought that proceeding to lay offs was perfectly OK, given that they expressed their compassion. In other words, it's all about how it looks, not how it really is.
If there was only one mindset I could choose to eliminate from North American society, it would be the cult of positive thinking and inane cheeriness.As is described in the article above, those who raise legitimate objections and warn of consequences become 'not a team player'...etcetera.It seems to me that in our public discourse, that is at work or in non-intimate social settings, our range of permissable emotions has narrowed to the banal and superficial. If ever there was a recipe for not constructively solving the problems of our time, this must be it...constructive criticism becomes traitorous dissent, and we are reduced to polite ciphers.

G West and ViveanLea

G West, you said:

there is a lot to be said - especially for tackling such things as clinical depression - for a combination of carefully administered antidepressants which act by remediating negative affective biases in depression and anxiety. Such changes are not, in my view, accessible to subjective therapy alone but they can be helpful in combination with certain kinds of drug therapies.

This makes absolutely zero sense. None at all. "... which act by remediating negative affective biases in depression and anxiety." Huh?? I don't think you have a clue as to what you are talking about. Do you have an idea how SSRIs and anti-psychotic medicines actually work? And then you say: "Such changes are not, in my view, accessible to subjective therapy alone but they can be helpful in combination with certain kinds of drug therapies." What changes, exactly? And what do you mean exactly by 'subjective therapy.'

Pharmaceutical drugs have fvcked up a lot more people than they've helped, thanks to our culture's pharmaceutical industrial complex domination of the psychiatric paradigm in North America. We've gotten so far into the drugs that any mood or behavior these days that is slightly off evokes a "what drug can I take" response.

VivianLea:

Cognitive behavioural therapy and variations therof have been shown to be effective in treating mental illness

I think I'll take this comment and go with it. The rest of your bizarre, rambling diatribe is, well, bizarre and incomprehensible.

barney

I appreciate your follow-up. I admit I haven’t read Ehrenreich’s book, and I’m simply responding to Rupp’s review.

While I certainly don’t disagree with Ehrenreich’s desire to expose snake oil salesman, I think it’s only one side of a more complex issue. Which is my reason (albeit very weak) for saying she doesn’t get it.

The quote, "The threats we face are real and can be vanquished only by shaking off self-absorption and taking action in the world. Build up the levees, get food to the hungry, find the cure...," tells me Ehrenreich is steering clear of looking at the thinking process that encourages folks to follow Oprah or Tom or Landmark..

A great many of the self-absorbed are simply unable to shake it off and build levees, feed the hungry or find a cure; they are paralysed by the way they have been trained to think and respond. For some, rational thinking becomes next to impossible.

As far as CBT (also known as Rational Emotive Therapy) is concerned, it’s recognized as an essential first step in the process of unraveling thinking and behaviour, and how they interact to affect our health. But it doesn’t go far enough. Though CBT may connect the way we think and feel to judgemental labeling, it doesn’t explain how judgements and labels are linked to past memories of pain or pleasure. And the fact that each time we cue ourselves with those pain-linked labels we stir our memories, recreate the past and re-experience the pain. Quite often CBT simply swaps one judgement or label for another. As a result (and unfortunately) CBT has been discounted and minimized as so much “talk therapy”.

And I agree, antidepressants are problematic. While they may be helpful, it’s only as a means of interrupting the link between thinking and anxiety. They never get passed the temporary elimination of body feedback pain. And they never deal with the thinking that caused disruptions in serotonin levels in the first place.

As for the dollars and sense of drugs … from the patients point of view, what’s the difference between paying $200 for therapy sessions or $200 for perscriptions? I suppose taking drugs has a couple of benefits. Not only does it keep GPs happy by getting the patient off their backs, it keeps the drug companies happy, and it allows the patient to avoid the stigma associated with visiting a therapist.

Disagree Barney - to clarify...

I left out a couple of words in my earlier post. It should have read:
Such changes are not, in my view, accessible to subjective cognitive therapy alone but they can be helpful in combination with certain kinds of drug therapies.

The point simply is that a short course of anti-depression drugs often create a more receptive patient - someone who is then more likely to benefit from professional cognitive therapy.

One of the most problematic things about antidepressants is the fact they are used by too often, prescribed fore periods that are too attenuated and given by too many generalists who don't understand the need for careful monitoring - including regular blood work.

My contention is that a short course of antidepressant drug therapy followed up by monitoring and effective professional cognitive therapy (often over a fairly lengthy period of time) is the appropriate way to tackle depression.

Thanks...

G West for your clarification. I certainly agree with your opinion here. I apologize for my slight overreaction to your initial previous posting.

KWD, I enjoyed reading your thoughts in this thread. Your points on CBT are noted, and I would simply hope the essence of our agreement is not lost, i.e., cognitive states are very malleable and under proper guidance and technique a re-adjustment or shake-up of these states of mind (or patterns of thoughts) and behavior can have very positive therapeutic impacts. And in no way does this infer a sort of Anthony Robbins infomercial conclusion. It simply means talking is very therapeutic and effective, partly because we are, by nature, social beings who need all kinds (including linguistic) of social connection.

The economics (as you note in your last paragraph) of getting this type of talk therapy to patients - so unfortunate, and so very true. The fact is that under our strapped health care system, within which we are also supposed to effectively deal with mental health care, it's so much more expedient and cost-effective to write a patient a script for antidepressants or anxiety meds rather than sit that patient down for several one-hour sessions and just talk with him/her.

This topic is a new, big can or worms. I like the way these discussions ebb and flow. If the Tyee ever tackles the issue of mental health, I'll look forward to commenting further on this important topic. So often, mental health gets lumped in with homelessness and addictions, which does a serious injustice to the issue.

@barney...

You are quite welcome to disagree with me, but do try to be polite would you? Or at the very least, constructive.
Just to be clear, offering an assessment of my writing or thinking abilities - or anyone elses' - shows to me arrogance as well as lack of manners. If you can't comprehend my ideas enough to respond, so be it - then just don't respond.
Smilies all around :)

Voracious Reader

There were several ESTies in the house I first lived in in Vancouver. I went to an introductory workshop on how to fulfill your goals. It amounted to telling everybody, thinking positively, then self-shaming your self to do things to meet that goal so you would not disappoint your friends and family. I had to fight to avoid NOT attending the full workshop.

Ask yourself this question: What is this person's incentive to do 'such and such'?

About ten years ago, a friend in Ottawa got sucked into the Anthony Robbins world via work training (it is really NLP-light). Thankfully, he got out of that headspace, but for at least two years was difficult to relate to.

consume

even tho' Oprah does cover important issues with revealing interviews,life dilemnas, the message of consume, and wear the right bra,jeans,shoes and makeup pervades her opulent space
political activism has been shunned by new age ommers
but ...the rainbow tribe can be just as facetious with
many having an antiwork,anti establishment bullshit attitude that keeps them hanging out at the foodbanks,free lunch spots and toking up most of the day in the park

Just because she has a PhD

Just because she has a PhD in cell biology does not mean she knows all. . . to believe this is another form of religious faith , no scientist knows everything, science itself is a constant process of revision, the true scientist knows that any time, new evidence can come to light, and what you believe may not be so . . However scientists are a human, and there is a very excellent book written by a physicist called the Structure of Scientifuc REvolutions , detailing how our humanness often prevenets generations of scientists from seeing a new angle on estabilished understanding staring them in the face.
I too disagree with the concept that positive thinking will get out us out of the worst troubles. I see the value in pointing out that this kind of happy-thought is dangerous ,and it is disturbing to hear that such happy-thought cults are replacing valuable thought in the daily running(which is currently being mismanaged so could use much better thought) of our complex world.
However, the placebo is well proven, with much excellent research. IN fact the body is one area where our mental state has alot of effects, so for this cell biologist too make such sweeping generalizations is troublesome, and makes me wonder what snake oil or book she is trying to cell(pun intended)

holy hysteria

This is probably the most amusing thread I've ever seen.

To put positive thinking into the categories of conspiracies and political agendas is akin to mass hysteria. Whatever gets you through the night, whether it be cerebral, spiritual or otherwise is no one's business.

Maybe it's time to shoot the messenger as opposed to the message, however, which is - last time I checked, relatively benign. I can't necessarily say the same for the likes of the Landmarkers and enterprising hucksters of the world, who appear to prey on our propensity for narcissism and self-involvement. Happiness and success is subject to thought, grace and luck but mostly occurs when we are outside of ourselves long enough to live in the now and share this thing called life without obsessing about how well we are doing it. The overwhelming increase in mental illness may just have something to do with the fact that we are all thinking to damned much.

Shannon Rupp's review is duly provacative and I applaud the debate, however extreme these opinions: it is our responsibility to separate the shifters from the shafters, but I can't help but smirk at those who think Oprah and her mantra of living your best life is akin to the antichrist.

Think, pray or just live in Nirvana. You decide.

I'm a feminist wiccan, who

I'm a feminist wiccan, who finds empowerment through the merger of earthbased spirituality and grassroots action.

I resist being lumped in with new age 'believers', in part because of the patriarchal ideology promulgated which falsely divides spirit from the material world, and then clearly regards the perceived power of one as superior to the other.

Focusing on a desired goal with positive intent is one thing, but standing around in a circle with one's eyes closed, is at best a half-baked recipe for social change. Because nothing happens 'all by itself', I'm still amazed at how many women who 'should know better' tend to turn towards the 'mind over matter', highly exploitive ideas promoted by magical thinking systems like the Law of Attraction, ala 'the Secret', that actively discourage political analysis.

Here's a short, entertaining read from Geoff Olson, who looked at the phenomenon in his article, Beyond the Secret: the Big Mystery Everybody is Talking About in the March 2007 issue of Common Ground.

http://www.commonground.ca/iss/0702188/cg188_secret.shtml