NY Times Article--the pressure to "be positive" - 06-02-2008 09:48 PM
I didn't see this on the RSS feed, though maybe it just hasn't made it yet, but there was a good article in the NY Times about the pressure on cancer patients to "be postitive" all the time.
There have been some comments made in this forum recently about someone's attitude towards their cancer battle being unecessarily negative. As a researcher and follower of research on positive pscyhology, I am the first one to believe that an optimistic attitude can (sometimes) make a difference in outcomes. But I also think it's important to allow people on the cancer "journey" (a trip no one wants to take) to go through their dark nights of the soul, especially when facing heavy things like disability and recurrences. It's just possible that those dark times and "negative" emotions are as rich a part of our human experience as the postitive.
It would be great if everyone, before posting advice about attitude to other people here, could look at this article.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/health/01stoical.html?pagewanted=1
There have been some comments made in this forum recently about someone's attitude towards their cancer battle being unecessarily negative. As a researcher and follower of research on positive pscyhology, I am the first one to believe that an optimistic attitude can (sometimes) make a difference in outcomes. But I also think it's important to allow people on the cancer "journey" (a trip no one wants to take) to go through their dark nights of the soul, especially when facing heavy things like disability and recurrences. It's just possible that those dark times and "negative" emotions are as rich a part of our human experience as the postitive.
It would be great if everyone, before posting advice about attitude to other people here, could look at this article.
http:/