The antidote to toxic positivity is “ tragic optimism,” a phrase coined by the existential-humanistic psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. No amount of positive thinking exercises will change this truth.” As the gratitude researcher Robert Emmons of UC Davis writes, “To deny that life has its share of disappointments, frustrations, losses, hurts, setbacks, and sadness would be unrealistic and untenable. Telling someone to “stay positive” in the middle of a global crisis is missing out on an opportunity for growth, not to mention likely to backfire and only make them feel worse. This “ toxic positivity” is ultimately a denial of reality. Refusing to look at life’s darkness and avoiding uncomfortable experiences can be detrimental to mental health. So there is nothing to embrace, rather how do we take our experiences seriously and pay attention to our experience? How do we think about our experience and think about our thinking? Because if we do not think about what we are doing and think about our thinking we remain trapped in the way we have always thought, and this constrains us from exploring what alternatives we might create together.“Tragic optimism” is the search for meaning during the inevitable tragedies of human existence, and is better for us than avoiding darkness and trying to “stay positive.”Ĭountless books have been written on the “power of gratitude” and the importance of counting your blessings, but that sentiment may feel like cold comfort during the coronavirus pandemic, when blessings have often seemed scant. Yes, the world is complex, COVID-19 is complex, and we introduce the complexity by way of our interactions. In closing, I want to take up the banality of the phrase “embracing complexity”, there is nothing to embrace, I would challenge we/human beings are the complexity. He developed the idea of tragic optimism, the ability to remain optimistic and be in the tragedy of your circumstances at the same time.īoth Frankl and Stockdale are able to acknowledge their current difficulties and at the same time hold the positive belief that they will still triumph. This had a dangerous influence on their powers of resistance and a great number of them died.” As the time drew near and there was no encouraging news, the prisoners lost courage and disappointment overcame them. It was simply that the majority of the prisoners had lived in the naive hope that they would be home again by Christmas. In his opinion, the explanation for this increase did not lie in the harder working conditions or the deterioration of our food supplies or a change of wealth or new epidemics. “ The death rate in the week between Christmas, 1944, and New Year's, 1945, increased in camp beyond all previous experience. The other example is Victor Frankl who wrote Man’s Search for Meaning, "You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be." The first one is Admiral Stockdale (Stockdale Paradox) While reflecting on this, two examples of individuals living in extended paradoxes came to mind. Realizing that these are happening at the same time requires us to think about our experience, to take our experience seriously and to continue to operate in the paradoxes that surround us. When I say paradoxes, I do not mean both/and ( ) rather understanding a paradox as: two opposite ideas/forces which are happening at the same time (inclusion/exclusion, involvement/detachment, enabling/constraining, individual/group). In my experience as a mountaineer/educator on countless expeditions, I have always marveled at how we are constantly operating in paradoxes. To this complex environment we as human beings introduce the complexity of how we choose to interact with each other on the descent, how we hold ourselves accountable and in doing so hold our team mates accountable. This time is the most dangerous the mountain remains complex with its steep slopes, icefields, crevasses, and rock-fall. They are also tired from the ascent and distracted by the euphoria of being on the descent. Much like the Sirens tempting Odysseus this chatter invites the mountaineers to relax, let down their guard, not to be as disciplined as they were on the ascent. We have summited the goal has been achieved now we can relax a little. This particular analogy struck me because usually the descent from the summit is when the worst accidents in mountaineering occur. As he talked about ascending to the apex of the number infected and descending the other side he used ascending and descending a mountain as an analogy.
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