A dark side to positive thinking

In a recent TV show about Trump, three keys influences were listed for the man who now seats at the White house: His father Fred, his one-time lawyer Roy Cohn and Norman Vincent Peale, a minister and author, best-known for his famous book “The Power of Positive Thinking”. 

He was the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, in New York City, until 1984, a Reformed Church in America congregation and he was a personal friend of both Nixon and Trump. Often overly simplistic, Peale's ideas and techniques were peppered with controversy and were frequently criticized by both church authorities and the psychiatric profession. 

I too was infatuated with the power of positive thinking thru “Think and Grow Rich” a book by Napoleon Hill predating Peale’s bestseller where the pastor probably found his inspiration. This helped me a lot along my career, but I always remained clear-eyed about the limitations of such a philosophy and picked my itinerary and expectations accordingly. Besides, Napoleon Hill was quite a controversial character too, back in his days.

Today, Trump’s behavior shows that he remains a staunch follower of Peale’s approach and that he will stop at nothing to turn his personal beliefs into achievable goals. The problem is that positive thinking needs to be used for good deeds in order to remain effective. 

Somehow, the law of Karma steps into its should practitioners of positive thinking forget about that important nuance. A modicum of moral standards helps in rendering the method effective, but that’s the caveat, Trump is woefully amoral for the system to work one hundred percent.