Personal Illness and the Shadow Side of Positive Thinking

• Author / Creator

  Bonnie Roberta Paridaen

• I have conducted a single-case heuristic study of my engagement with breast cancer and how the collective pressure to think positively affected me. I explore the shadow, or the unrecognized significance, that positive thinking placed upon my healing process. I argue that the tacit implication behind the belief in positive thinking can become a form of scapegoating. I have included my artwork, photographs, poetry, and my personal dreams to convey what my psyche has shown and communicated to me throughout the process of my research journey. My goal is to illustrate that “anything derived merely from rationality risks being profoundly inauthentic unless it also bears witness to the destabilizing presence of the unconscious” (Rowland, 2005, p. 23).

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Positive thinking
  • Scapegoating
  • Breast cancer

• Graduation date

  2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R39K4670N

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.