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The Positive Power of Negative Thinking
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Julie K. Norem is a psychology professor at Wellesley College. This new book makes her scientific research on defensive pessimism available to the general public. Click the links below to take her personality quiz, to buy the book, or to get more information.
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Table of Contents:
1. Preamble to a Contrarian View
2. Accentuating the Negative: A Strategy, Not a Symptom
3. What It's All About: The Problem of Anxiety
4. Why Can't a Pessimist Be More Like an Optimist?
5. Taking Cover: The Avoider and the Self-Handicapper
6. Negative Thinking Versus Positive Illusions
7. No Size Fits All: Different Folks, Different Strategies
8. When Strategies Clash: Same Boat, Different Strokes
9. Dark Side, Bright Side, My Side: Prospects for Change
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Paperback edition published September 2002 in English, available worldwide from www.amazon.com and other booksellers. Also available in translations: Chinese (www.ylib.com) German (www.amazon.de) Spanish (www.casadellibro.com) Swedish (www.bokus.com/se). Coming in 2003-04: Japanese, Korean, Polish, & Greek.
[click Link bottom right for international editions]
Is your glass…
A. Half-full?
B. Half empty--but what will you do when it IS empty?
C. Empty? You just knocked it over.
Are you tired of always being told to "look on the bright side"? Are you criticized for imagining worst case scenarios? Do you wish your optimistic friends would just leave you alone and let you be negative?
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If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be one of the millions of people who have learned to cope with the pressures of modern life by using Defensive Pessimism, a strategy of imagining the worst-case scenario of any situation. What if the train is running late, and you won’t make it to your job interview on time? What if you don’t know anyone at a party you’ll be attending? What if you don’t know any of the questions on your final exam? Dr. Norem shows how indulging in negative thoughts like these actually helps people go on to do their best by preparing for the worst. In fact, Dr. Norem has found that many people perform more poorly when forced to think positive, since negative thinking is often an effective strategy for managing anxiety.
In this much needed book, Dr. Norem tells the stories of people who have harnessed the power of their negative thinking to increase their self-esteem and make significant progress toward their personal goals. At the same time, she shows how this strategy of Defensive Pessimism differs from the standard optimistic approach--and how friends, husbands and wives and coworkers with different approaches can understand one another and work together. Whether you are a die-hard pessimist, an eternal optimist or some combination of the two, Dr. Norem will show you how you can use your outlook to achieve success--and discover how to make your worries work for you. (Hardcover edition published by Basic Books in September 2001)
Dr. Norem's "Positive Power of Negative Thinking" was featured in the New York Times Magazine December 2001 cover article on "The Year in Ideas."
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A Reader Review from internet booksellers: "The psychologist who wrote this interesting new book provides significant understanding and help for those of us who just are not the naturally upbeat type of Amercan optimists. Finally a book that truly respects and values the wide range of individual differences that exist for optimism and pessimism. The concept and quiz for the personality style "Defensive Pessimism" support a positive interpretation of the adaptive value of being a person who thinks through worst-case scenarios and uses anxiety to motivate and carry out effective actions. I like the balanced approach in this book that helps the reader understand both the dangers of unrealistic optimism and the virtues of constructive pessimism. This is a welcome relief from the one-sided optimistic bias of the positive psychology movement; here we can find realistic psychology for real people."
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 jnorem@wellesley.edu
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