The last time I mentioned the name of Geoff Thompson in this blog was in relation to a workshop I was running called Streetwise: How to Protect Yourself Against Aggression.  Geoff is a former bouncer and self-defence expert whose autobiography Watch My  Back has enjoyed tremendous success.  He has now branched out into other areas of writing.

I mention him because I’ve spent the last few weeks reading two of his books:

• The Elephant and the Twig: The Art of Positive Thinking
• Fear: The Friend of Exceptional People

They remind me in style of the original type of self-help books written by the likes of Samuel Smiles and Napoleon Hill, full of inspirational quotations and success stories.  Unlike many books of this genre today, they don’t contain much psychological jargon or management speak.  Geoff speaks out of personal experience and with a very British turn of phrase.

What is this ‘personal experience’?  Geoff was someone who was depressed and stuck in a job he loathed.  Now, he’s a Bafta-winning  author of films and stage plays, as well as thirty-four books and hundreds of published articles.  Check out his site here. Also, if you fancy seeing a few short films he’s written, try these, but I warn you, they’re not for the faint hearted!

Bouncer – a Bafta-nominated short-film staring Ray Winstone (no less)

Romans 12:20 – a multi-award winning film with Northern Ireland’s own James Ellis

From a self-defence viewpoint, Geoff’s biggest contribution is possibly ‘the fence’; this is a simple body language technique anyone can use to keep danger at bay while preparing for a strike.  Watch him explain and demonstrate it in two parts here and here.  His book on The Fence I can personally recommend.

I’ve enjoyed a brief correspondence with Geoff by letter and can confirm he’s a complete gentleman.  Most of the gurus I wouldn’t want to meet.  How refreshing for a teacher to live out his own philosophy, and to demonstrate that between true strength and humility there is no contradiction?

Geoff, if you’re listening, now about coming to Northern Ireland sometime?

Image credit: Ian Wilson.

A few weekends ago I happened across an article called Positive thinking is positively bad for you so always look on the glum slide of life by Virginia Ironside.  In it she gave a positive review for a book entitled Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.  The author is Barbara Ehrenreich, an American journalist, socialist and political activist.

I haven’t got a chance to read the book yet so I’ll try to keep my mind open until I do.  All I can do is comment on the article by Ironside and some other stuff I’ve read on the Internet.  What I do know is that Ehrenreich claims overly positive thinking had a part to play in the recent financial collapse.  More tellingly, she is happy to lump together academics like Martin Seligman with health-and-wealth prosperity preachers like Joel Osteem and New Agers like Oprah Winfrey.

• I find the first of these claims overly optimistic for an anti-capitalist like Ehrenreich.  The socialist solution of borrowing and spending our way out of recession is suicidal; the entrepreneurial method of small-but-optimistic thinking is the way ahead.  Even the socialists of the British Labour party admit the need for economic optimism, now more than ever.  It’s a shame that some of our well-heeled American cousins seem determined to cut down the first shoots of  recovery as they sprout.
• And the second of her claims is plain sloppy.  I’ve blogged before about the important distinction between positive thinking and positive psychology.  Positive thinking is a pseudo-scientific sentiment, while positive psychology is an academic movement encompassing some of the greatest minds in modern and contemporary psychology.  Ironside and Ehrenreich display their ignorance here big-time!  I might as well condemn all journalism as vulgar and populist because I’ve glanced at The Daily Sport!

Anyway its an interesting debate.  Here are some other articles for those who want to read around the topic.

Singin’ in the Wane: The positive thinking movement — panacea or national addiction?

Bright-sided: Is feel-good actually bad?

A personal trainer for your happiness

Learned Optimism: How To Change Your Mind And Your Life

Image credit: gwydionwilliams.

This is quick blog to make a quick point: there is a world of difference between ‘positive thinking’ and positive psychology.

Positive thinking…

…is a largely esoteric and notoriously vague concept.  It was the brain child of Norman Vincent Peel.  It has also been advocated by those associated with the New Age Movement, NLP and the farther reaches of the personal development industry.  This of course neither makes it false nor dangerous as a matter of necessity.  It does however put it beyond the Western scientific model.

Positive psychology…

…on the other hand is just that: an accepted and respected branch of the academic discipline of psychology.  While it does overlap somewhat with philosophy in terms of some of the questions it asks and ideas it ponders (e.g. well-being and meaning), it steers away from quick-fix answers and mystical methods.   Do not confuse the two!

So why am I labouring this point?  To remove any prejudice from your minds’ before I share some interesting news.  Did you know that it is a scientific fact that optimistic women live longer than others?  Studies by both American scientists have shown that optimistic people have a lower risk of heart disease.  Cynicism literally destroys the heart.  Earlier studies by Dutch scientist have shown the same thing with regard to men.

So the next time you’re tempted to sneer at the ‘half full rather than half empty‘ kind of person…don’t.  When listening to the sound of an optimist, even the arch-pessimist Thomas Hardy had to admit that maybe there was out there “Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew, that I was unaware”.

Image credit: ESOX LUCIUS.