Think Negative

16 February 2003


Positive Mental Attitude Doesn't Get Rid of Tumors

One has always been suspicious of unbridled cheerfulness and a can-do attitude -- it smacks of totalitarian propaganda in the service of unthinking evil. So, there is something strangely gratifying about a new study from Australia that shows having a positive outlook, being optimistic, doesn't appear to help in the fight against cancer. Indeed, there is an argument that it could be a negative.

The study tracked 179 lung cancer patients over five years and found that this particularly nasty disease spared neither optimists nor pessimists. By 2001, after five years, 171 of the patients were dead. Their deaths were undoubtedly painful, and they are missed each and every day by their loved ones. Each day, many more diagnosed with this disease, and cure rates aren't very promising.

Naturally, under such a death sentence, one might want to break down and cry. One might feel angry at God, by whatever name, and one might just hurt too damn much and be too damn tired to put on a happy face for visitors. Dr. Penelope Schofield, who was the lead author of the study wrote, "We should question whether it is valuable to encourage optimism if it results in the patient concealing his or her distress in the misguided belief that this will afford survival benefits. If a patient feels generally pessimistic ... it is important to acknowledge these feelings as valid and acceptable."

There are good days, and there are bad days in every life, and with cancer (or any other mortal disease), there are constraints on what good means. Yet in a society where negativity is a taboo, where doubt is akin to treason, and where pills exist to make quite appropriate (but sad) feelings vanish, the patient is socially forced to keep up the spirits of those who aren't dying.

What the world needs, it seems obvious, is a good dose of negativity. Not because it cures any better, but because it is a bit more realistic. Disappointment is what happens when optimism runs into reality. Boundless optimism meeting infinite reality should yield some kind of psychotic episode. On the other hand, a pessimist expects the worst, and reality is never perfectly obliging there either. Which can be a pleasant surprise - indeed, it can make the whole day worthwhile.

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