The Case Against Positive Thinking

BY SOFO ARCHON

“Just think positively and all your problems will vanish into thin air. Don’t bother taking concrete action to change the conditions of your life—just sit where you are and visualize with positive intent that everything’s going to be alright.”

This is the essence of the philosophy many self-help coaches, authors, and so-called spiritual teachers preach. It’s called “positive thinking” and is selling remarkably well, considering the “positive thinking” industry is a multi-billion-dollar business.

But what if I told you it’s total nonsense?

You might be thinking: “What the hell, Sofo, have you gone crazy? Your entire blog is about dealing with suffering and rediscovering joy—in other words, about letting go of the negative and experiencing the positive—and now you’re saying positive thinking is nonsense?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. At least when it comes to “positive thinking” as it’s commonly portrayed in popular books and films. But before you’re too quick to judge my stance, let me explain.

Shutting Your Eyes Won’t Make Your Problems Disappear

If you look at life without the filters of ideology, you’ll see it contains both positive and negative realities: pleasure and pain, love and hate, peace and war, and so on.

According to the philosophy of “positive thinking,” however, we shouldn’t dwell on the negative side of life—in fact, we should pretend it doesn’t even exist. That way, we’re told, it won’t affect us. And if we simply ignore the negative and focus only on the positive, it will supposedly disappear on its own.

“Don’t worry about the starving children in Africa. Just pray for them, and everything will be fine.”

“Don’t worry about rising sea levels, environmental pollution, or biodiversity loss. Just keep a ‘positive mindset,’ and our planet will recover from all the damage.”

“Don’t worry about the job you hate or your broken relationships. Just visualize that you’re already living the life of your dreams, and you’ll soon attract the perfect partner and career.”

Needless to say, “positive thinking” won’t do a damn thing about any of this. Children will still die by the millions from starvation, the planet will keep being harmed, and your life will still suck. In fact, things will get worse. By refusing to face our problems—and actually do something about them—we only ensure that, over time, they become more complicated and increasingly destructive to us and the world around us.

To give you an analogy, “positive thinking” is like being in a house on fire and doing nothing but wishing the flames would disappear. Of course, the fire keeps spreading until it eventually consumes the entire house—yourself included.

That’s why I call “positive thinking” a nonsense philosophy: not only does it fail, it’s actively counterproductive—it produces the exact opposite of what it promises. The question, then, is: why do so many people buy into it?

The Appeal of “Positive Thinking”

Somewhere I read these profound words:

“Do not be afraid to accept ugly truths, and never be afraid to reject beautiful lies.”

Unfortunately, the vast majority of humans don’t hesitate to embrace beautiful lies while rejecting ugly truths. Why? Because ugly truths remind us of serious problems we actually need to resolve—and doing so often involves hardship and pain. And who wants to go through hardship and pain?

No one (well, except masochists, I suppose).

So we avoid facing our problems. And what’s the easiest way to do that? By not looking at them at all—and fooling ourselves into thinking they don’t exist.

It’s no wonder, then, that so many people buy into the philosophy of “positive thinking.” They want to hear beautiful lies that make them feel everything is alright, so they don’t have to worry or take responsibility. And since we live in a world ruled by money, it’s only natural that cunning individuals will sell “positive thinking” and exploit people’s insecurities for profit.

Through my writing, I tell the truth as I see it—even when it’s painfully ugly. I know some of you, my readers, might be put off by that. But I also know it’s the only way to face our problems and truly deal with them—both individually and collectively. So if you’ve been following this blog for a while, I want to take a moment to praise you for being a badass reader and a committed truth-seeker.

From “Positive Thinking” to Grounded, Action-Based Thinking

Imagine you’re suffering from a painful, debilitating disease that requires medical treatment. You could use “positive thinking” to pretend it isn’t serious and that you’ll recover on your own. But in reality, nothing will change—the disease will persist, and will likely get worse.

Now, imagine instead that you let a medical expert examine your condition, find the cause, and prescribe treatment. Maybe it involves pain—surgery or strong medication with side effects. But you know that no matter how uncomfortable the process, it’s worth it. The pain of treatment is temporary, while the relief can last a lifetime. So you follow the expert’s advice—and you heal.

Life works the same way. If we want to overcome our problems, we need to act—not by chanting affirmations or wishing everything will be fine, but by standing up, rolling up our sleeves, and taking real, concrete steps toward change. That starts with accepting our problems instead of denying them, as the philosophy of “positive thinking” urges us to do. We need to face them head-on, understand why they exist, and find effective solutions.

Of course, this isn’t easy. Admitting something is wrong in our lives is a bitter pill to swallow, and changing it can require painstaking effort. But whether we like it or not, there’s no way around it: either we confront our problems and suffer for a short while, or we ignore them and suffer for the rest of our lives.