Postmodernism and the rise of positive psychology

Barbara Ehrenreich

In the 1980s, major American corporations started downsizing as a result of globalization, leaving millions of unemployed. Between 1987 and 1997, 3,5 millions of American workers lost their jobs. (The Economist, 2008).
However, for the first time since the Great Depression, the layoffs affected mostly white-collars, such as middle managers. According to the American Management Association, two-thirds of the employees laid off in 1994 were “salaried, college-educated workers” (Downs, 1995). In 1993, IBM ended its no-layoff policy. The same year, Robert Samuelson wrote an article untitled "R.I.P. The Good Corporation" in Newsweek, admitting that he, along with many others, had idealized American companies. He wrote:

What's gone is a sense of confidence, a faith that jobs-or careers-are permanent. (...) We overestimated the prowess of U.S. management and underestimated the disruptive power of market changes, from new technologies to foreign competitors. (Samuelson, 1993) Despite the economic uncertainty, positive psychology started being popular in the late 1990s in the US. The underlying premise of positive psychology is that happiness can be taught. The enormous success of self-help books, especially in America, shows the impact of the positive psychology. For instance, The Secret (Byrne, 2006), a book explaining the alleged transformative power of the “law of attraction”, has sold over 20 million copies in the world. In 2006, Harvard's most popular course was a positive psychology course.

In Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World (2010), Barbara Ehrenreich defines positive thinking as “the assumption that one only has to think a thing or desire it to make it happen”. She argues that the positive psychology has had a major impact on economies, corporations and religions. She critically analyses the “mandatory optimism” and “contrived positivity” in America. Variables such as inequalities, hard work and possibility of failure are not taken into consideration in the happiness equation.

Positive psychologists claim that happiness leads to more happiness because happy people are more willing to “share their good fortune” (Seligman, 2002). This belief goes along with the “law of attraction” whereby “like attracts like”. Therefore, according to this principle, happy people are more likely to have a successful social life than depressed people. Happy people do seem to be more successful. They are more likely to get a second interview, get positive feedbacks, resist burnouts, get promotions, etc.

In a review of 225 studies published in 2005 by the American Psychological Association (APA), lead author Sonja Lyubomirsky, concluded that happy people are generally more successful. According to her, their happiness is a consequence of their positivity and not the reverse. Plus, she argued that happy people tend to be “confident, optimistic, and energetic” which makes them more likeable to others.

We could draw a comparison between positive thinking in the 21st century and religion during the industrial revolution as they both give hopes of better tomorrows to vulnerable workers. In 1843, Karl Marx wrote, “religion is the opium of the people”. To a certain extent, religion and positive thinking are both powerful tools to prevent a popular uprising against the established order. Therefore, in the 21st century, “optimism is the opium of the people” (Kundera, 1967).

Positive thinking has a “symbiotic relationship” with capitalism (Ehrenreich, 2009). Indeed, since the 1980s, shareholders have gained a lot of power in the decision-makings of big firms. As a result, companies are constantly restructuring and cutting jobs. The positive thinking industry has found its niche in a new generation of white collars constantly under threat to lose their job. Workers are asked to be “employable” in order to adapt to the market. In other words, adaptability and flexibility go hand in hand with employability.

The need to be employable in an always more competitive and liberal world can cause a potential disjunction between the person's inner feelings and the attitude they are expected to have (Shindler, 2013). The market says: “you have to be employable in order to get a job, it's your fault if you're unemployed” while society celebrates and promotes individualism: “do what you want to do, put meaning in your existence” which can lead to frustration.