Positive Psychology Is Not Positive Thinking

If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.

Ray Charles, Jimmy Lewis

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I feel compelled to make sure that none of us are confused by the distinction between “positive thinking” and “positive psychology.”

Positive Thinking

The positive thinking movement started in the late 1920’s. It took on real steam in the 1930’s as a response to the Great Depression and the wealth inequality of that era. Why was it that a few men got filthy rich while so many just got filthy trying to feed their families? A fellow by the name of Napoleon Hill set out to find an answer. I would call him the first of the “positive thinkers,” although I could make an argument that Benjamin Franklin set all of this in motion.

Andrew Carnegie stood out as the classic Horatio Alger story, self-made, rags-to-richest of the rich, as successful at business as anyone else alive at that time. Legend[1] has it that Hill, apparently acting as a journalist, interviewed Carnegie, and Carnegie proposed to introduce him to the most successful men[2] in the country at that time. Carnegie challenged Hill to use those interviews to formulate the “laws of success.” [3]

Let’s stop here, and note an important distinction. The goal of the early positive thinkers was to help people become successful. The goal was to succeed at the game of capitalism. The goal of positive psychology, however, is to formulate a scientifically-based analysis of what makes us happy, what increases our well-being. In fact, a positive psychologist would discourage the quest for unlimited material wealth. Recent studies have shown that more money can “buy happiness” only if you are relatively poor; once you become moderately middle-class, it does not have much effect on your happiness.

Also, notice the cultural evolution from seeking material wealth as a primary goal to more self-actualized goals. Abraham Maslow would be proud.

Back to Hill and Carnegie: For starters, Hill allegedly had access to Carnegie himself. As the story goes, Carnegie then introduced Hill to Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Charles Schwab, Woodrow Wilson, John D. Rockefeller, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and a score of other luminaries of the day. The legend of Napoleon Hill includes Woodrow Wilson’s asking him for advice about how to resolve World War I.

Hill first reported his results in eight pamphlets, which combined were titled The Law of Success, published in 1928. That got him a Rolls Royce and a big house. Then 1929 came along, and his riches became rags again. I’m not sure that Hill had as many bankruptcies as Donald Trump, but it was probably close.

Hill hit it big again in 1937 with the publication of his most famous book, Think and Grow Rich, which became one of the biggest best-selling self-help books of all time. One of his key concepts was:

Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale echoed this theme of mind over matter (or mind over money) in The Power of Positive Thinking[4]. In doing so, Dr. Peale gave credit to Hill.

The basic idea was that achievements begin with thoughts, and if you can envision success, hold that thought in your mind, infuse it with emotion (or, for Peale, faith and for Carnegie a “burning desire”), and work hard, you could manifest the thought and make it your reality. Doubts, however, or pessimism, can lead to negative results. For positive thinking to work, you have to keep your mind laser-focused on your goal.

Hill and Peale were the trail blazers for motivational speakers like W. Clement Stone (who co-wrote Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude with Napoleon Hill and was a true rags-to-riches figure who dropped out of high school and built a billion-dollar insurance business), Zig Ziglar (See You at the Top), Brian Tracy (Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life), and Tony Robbins (Unlimited Power).

This theory that, if you thought hard enough and long enough you could manifest an empty parking space in front of a crowded mall, was resurrected in 2006, thanks in large part to Oprah, in a book called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne, and became known in many circles as “the Law of Attraction.” This was old wine in a new bottle. Ernest Holmes wrote a Bible on the Law of Attraction, in 1938, called The Science of the Mind.

All of that is very interesting, and it would be fun to write a history of the positive thinking movement. Many of the ideas of the positive thinkers were geared towards people in sales, and they had the noble goal of teaching the “common man” what the rich guys did to succeed in an era when most of the rich guys were self-made. Their books were inspirational and produced a lot of good aphorisms.

The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does. 

For a good sample of Hill’s aphorisms, see: https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/43-best-napoleon-hill-quotes-to-inspire-success-in-life-business.html

Positive thinking has come under fire recently by contemporary psychologists who argue that it does not really work and can sometimes even prevent people from reaching their goals.

There is a famous story about Michael Phelps, the great swimmer. In his early days, Michael was competing in a big race. As soon as he jumped into the pool, his goggles filled with water, and he was flying blind for the entire race. Despite that handicap, he won a gold medal and set a world record. How did he do it? He trained himself to prepare for worst case scenarios, entertaining those negative thoughts that positive thinkers warned against.

Interested? Take a look at Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the Science of Motivation by Gabriele Oettingen. Ryan Holiday, the neo-Stoic, and one of my favorite authors, makes a similar point in The Obstacle is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials Into Triumph.




[1] There are those who say that Hill was quite a self-promoter and that he was not shy about bending the facts when it served his purposes. This includes his misrepresentations that he was a lawyer. According to Wikipedia, “The authenticity of many of Hill’s claims have been widely disputed … There are no known records of Hill’s meetings with famous men he claimed to have interviewed.”

[2] Sorry, ladies, but the 19th Amendment was not even passed until 1919 – an interesting repetition of “19”, which I would also note is the name of Adele’s first album – weird, huh?

[3] Hill published the story of his meeting with Carnegie after Carnegie’s death.

[4] Which was on the best seller list for over 180 weeks!

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Positive Psychology

When the American Psychological Association elected Martin Seligman as its president in 1996, he turned psychology on its ear. First, he insisted that psychological techniques (or interventions) be empirically based. In other words, they would be researched and peer reviewed and rely upon inductive reasoning and not deductive reasoning and intuition.

The second thing he did was shift the entire focus of psychology from a method of treating mental illness to the quest to discover what makes us happy, what makes the good life – back to the questions asked by philosophers in the time of Aristotle and Socrates.

When approaching the subject of happiness, it is important to distinguish “hedonic” happiness and “eudaimonic” happiness.

Hedonic happiness is what we experience when we bite into a piece of chocolate cake, get an unexpected IRS refund, or buy a new car. It feels good but not for long. Hedonism is like a drug addiction; you may get a temporary high, but it does not last. If a hedonist wants to stay happy, he needs more cake.

Eudaimonic happiness is more like the warm and fuzzy feeling you get after doing something selfless; it’s more like contentment, satisfaction. You feel good because of your own actions, not because of external circumstances.

Dr. Vic Strecher, author of Life on Purpose, refers to eudaimonic happiness as “transcending or self-transcending”, and puts it like this: “I’m thinking about things bigger than myself. I’m thinking about love or community or gratitude or empathy.” Hedonically oriented people think more about “fame and fortune and attractiveness, and things like that, so much self-enhancing.”

The study of happiness has spawned an entire new genre of psychology, called, generally, “positive psychology,” which, unlike positive thinking, is based upon scientific research. For those of you who have not dipped your toes into these waters, I have created the reading list set out below. Pick one and get started, or scroll to the bottom for my recommendation of where to start.

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By Martin Seligman, Ph.D.:

  • Learned Optimism

  • Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment

  • The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey from Helplessness to Optimism

  • The Optimistic Child: A Proven Program to Safeguard Children Against Depression and Build Lifelong Resilience

  • Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-Being

By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi:

  • Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

  • Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life

  • Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention

  •  The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium

By Sonja Lyubomirsky:

  • The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want

  • The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, but Doesn’t. What Shouldn’t Make You Happy But Does.

By Barbara L. Frederickson, Ph.D.:

  • Love 2.0: Creating Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection

  • Positivity: Top Notch Research Reveals the 3-1 Ratio That Will Change Your Life

By Tal Ben-Shahar:

  • Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create Your Own Road to Happiness

  • Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment

 Other Authors:

  • How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman

  • Pursuing the Good Life: 100 Reflections on Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson

  • Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

  • Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation by Gabriele Oettingen

  • The Resilience Factor by Karen Reivich and Andrew Shatte

  • Thanks: How Practicing Gratitude Makes You Happier by Robert A. Emmons

  • Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals by Heidi Grant Halvorson, Ph.D.

  • Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts by Suzann Pileggi Pawelski and James O. Pawelski

  • Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Overwhelmed? Start hereThe How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want. Sonja Lyubomirsky does an excellent job of summarizing the findings of positive psychology up to 2007.

Happy reading and happy holidays!

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What’s Positive about Positive Psychology? Part One: Background, Gratitude, and Hedonic Adaptation

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The Wisdom of Stephen S. Hall