Customer Reviews

Positive Illusions: Creative Self-Deception and the Healthy Mind

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Great review of a prominent researcher's endeavor into the notion that people's positive illusions (delusions?) keep them happy and, yes, healthy. The book does not, however, review a great deal of other literature that contradicts this premise. This book is great, generally, but is a bit of a positive illusion itself, in my opinion.

Positive Illusions
Shelley E. Taylor

This book presents a clearly written, well-organized discussion of the scientific literature on "positive illusions," and makes the argument that positive illusions are good for you. Unfortunately, psychology characterizes "positive illusions" as a form of "self-deception," which is simplistic and essentialist. The basic fallacy in psychology is that there is "one reality," and people who do not recognize it are crazy: psychology lumps all types of self-deception into one category, whether they are mild or exaggerated-there is no flexibility to account for differences in people's perception of social reality. Social reality is multiple, not unitary: individuals who are able to see things from a variety of different perspectives, including future possibilities, are better equipped to make good choices, and do better, than individuals who are stuck in memories of past humiliation and failure.

It's NORMAL to have some false illusions about your worth.
In fact, it's ADAPTIVE.

Thinking bad thoughts and being depressed decreases your ability to make good judgments, and increases sensations of bodily pain. Depressed people have less complex thought processes, and use fewer categories to make sense of information; the categories they use tend to be simple, polarized ones (good-bad, black-white), instead of complex. They are unable to see additional perspectives that would lead them out of depression. By enslaving themselves to thoughts about how stupid and disgusting they are, they keep themselves from doing their best. Positive illusions lead people out of depression, and give them a jump-start on succeeding.

Whether it seems realistic or not, it's best to have some positive illusions about yourself, to increase your chances of doing well.

Standard psychology considers contact with "reality" to be the norm for health; mildly depressed people are considered to be simply reacting to the "reality" of their situation; however, depressed people who get stuck on past "reality" for an extended time, and to the point where they can't function properly, are clinically depressed, and mentally ill. People with so many illusions, or such a degree of illusions, about themselves that they can't function properly are schizophrenics and manic-depressives, also mentally ill. But there is a middle ground that is healthy: a moderate level of positiveness is biologically adaptive.

It is unfortunate that "positive illusions" have been characterized as "self-deception," which connotes lying and irrationality. In Primate studies, "deceptive tactics" in relations with others are characteristic of the higher orders of intellect, and skill in this area can lead to greater success in competitive interactions. Humans have taken it a step further, and incorporated levels of "self-deception" - positive illusions, to promote and advance themselves.

Psychology could benefit from incorporating relativistic theory. The book does not mention "cultural relativity," and the fact that a situation can look different when viewed from different perspectives, but Taylor's analysis nevertheless implies that looking at a situation from creative perspectives can lift you out of enslavement to the past: memories of failure are not necessarily "reality." We value Einstein's theory of relativity as applied to "scientific" data, but not to "personal" data about the self. With Einstein's theory we have made great scientific advancements. But psychology is stubborn, and has made little advancement in understanding how the self can adapt by taking a relativistic approach to assessing "reality." Sociologists know that "reality" in society is perceived differently by different people, in different contexts: social reality is constructed and heavily edited, through introspection, through managed presentation of the self, through bullying and ostracism. Individuals may lose control over a particular situation, but have the poetic ability to see reality from different perspectives, creatively edit and construct positive thoughts, and move on to new situations, to give them more control.

This popular book expands the message of a much-cited 1988 paper by Taylor and Browne which argues that most of us have unrealistically positive beliefs about ourselves and this is generally a good thing. Taylor argues that good mental health (resilience, persistence, and so on) is related to three key positive illusions: unrealistically positive views of the self, illusions of control, and unrealistic optimism.

During the late 1990s these views fit nicely into the "irrational exuberance" of the times. In the gloomier days from 2001 we might approach the claims more skeptically. The drastic failure of so many celebrated business success stories has suggested that arrogance, over-confidence, and self-delusion were a major part of the problem. Taylor's book presents what seems like a large body of evidence for the view that unrealistically positive self-illusions correlate with mental well-being and success.

The book is certainly worth reading both for assessing the implications for your personal thinking and decision-making style and that encouraged by your organizational culture. However, researchers have since strongly challenged the basis of Taylor's work. Some argue that it is mostly wrong while others find that some positive illusions can be beneficial but others are detrimental. The time period and context considered also matter. In discussion groups it was found that those who significantly over-rated themselves initially struck other group members as confident, interesting, and entertaining. By the seventh meeting, however, they were seen as arrogant, irritating, hostile, and generally narcissistic. These "self-enhancers" maintained the highest confidence and self-esteem yet were more likely to drop out of college. The academic conflict on this issue should be of particular interest to leaders who must inspire, and to those motivating organizations to make risky and difficult but needed changes.

Like many people, I struggled for years with what doctors were calling depression. I felt like a flawed, hopeless case after multiple treatment failures. This book helped me understand how I was different from normally mooded people and be proud of that difference instead of seeing it as an illness. Reading this compendium of research into the constant stream of lies they cling to was a huge eye-opener.

Although Taylor presents the positive illusions as good because they keep people from suffering, it is easy to see through that judgment, especially if one is a realistic "depressed" person. Just ask yourself what the negative consequences for others such beliefs have, and you'll quickly realize that such normal-mood phenomena as Just World thinking, while helping the happy jerks who indulge in it, causes at least half the injustice and suffering in this world!

The non-depressed are conscienceless jerks. I don't want to be one of them, and I don't even want to associate with them. And doctors who try to push drugs at me to treat my disease of realistic thinking can shove it up their butts.