Abstract:
Mindfulness and positive psychology as ideology.
Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative: ‘try not to think’.
It would be tempting, perhaps, to describe ‘positive psychology’ as the latest fad in a discipline not short of buzzwords and passing fashions. Tempting, but not true, since this particular trend has thoroughly infiltrated almost every form of psychotherapeutic mental-health treatment, and many other areas besides, and is implemented in the corporate world, the public sector and educational settings. The function of this doctrine of optimism in times of crisis calls for explanation, remembering that here, as elsewhere, the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas.
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