This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Woodstock, L. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Think About It: The Misbegotten Promise of Positive Thinking Discourse

Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania

This article, historical and critical in scope, explores self-help literature’s positive thinking discourse, through which key concepts of selfhood, self-transformation, and society are textually conveyed, within the context of the genre’s development from roughly 1880 to the present. The article tracks how individual thought, in contrast to dialogical social interaction, has long been constructed as the central means to health, happiness, and self-transformation. By unpacking the conflicting ways in which positive thinking messages construct notions of the self, society, thought, and communication, the article argues that these messages run counter to theories of the social construction of reality and considers the consequences of these popular and powerful messages. The article concludes by placing positive thinking within the context of a broader system of belief: communication as cure-all, a simplistic notion of communication that pervades popular culture.

Key Words: self-help • communication theory • positive thinking • social interaction • community

Journal of Communication Inquiry, Vol. 31, No. 2, 166-189 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0196859906298177


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?