Stop fighting pessimism. How thinking about bad things helps you achieve success

IS NEGATIVISM GOOD?

Not long ago, a symposium of American psychologists was held in Washington under the motto “The Unnoticed Advantages of Negativism.” Its purpose was, as one of the symposium participants put it, to speak out against “the tyranny of positive thinking and the dominance of optimism.” Modern psychologists come to the conclusion that the obsession with positivity and optimism has gone too far. Of course, optimism has its advantages, but there are also many disadvantages.

A one-sided view of the world and oneself does not give a person a real picture of what is happening. Such a person, willy-nilly, lives only for today, without thinking about the consequences of his own and others’ actions. Carelessness and selfishness are the main characteristics of thoughtless optimism, according to participants in the Washington symposium. Unforeseen collapse of hopes, severe disappointment - all these are the fruits of optimism. Every person needs a dose of pessimism in life, so as not to delude themselves too much and look at things soberly.

But we shouldn’t forget that the glass can be not only half full, but also half empty. Social psychologist from Massachusetts, Julia Norem, has been researching so-called defensive pessimism - a behavioral strategy when a person tries to mentally replay the upcoming situation, but always taking into account minor obstacles in achieving the goal. According to research, defensive pessimism is no worse than strategic optimism, which forces a person to carefully avoid thinking about bad things.

In some ways, being pessimistic is even better. Thinking about obstacles allows you to more fully embrace the subject, see all its sides, and thus force you to think and find the right solution. It's worse when pessimists try to imagine themselves as invincible champions, and even worse when, like strategic optimists, they try not to think about anything at all. Optimists, as the study showed, on the contrary, achieve the best results after a mindless “vacation on the beach” and the worst results after imagining themselves as pessimists and starting to think about possible obstacles and difficulties in completing the task.

The main conclusion of the study: optimism and pessimism become second nature for everyone, rooted both in upbringing and, apparently, in innate predisposition

And the important thing is that when solving certain problems, similar in structure to the tasks in the experiment, defensive pessimism, if it is natural for a person, turned out to be no worse than strategic optimism

Negative emotions, negative thoughts, pessimism slowly but surely destroy human health. When your head is often dominated by gloomy forebodings, destructive thinking and apathy, your body is under mild stress. If a person always expects the worst, his body is tense, even if the person does not notice it. Why is this happening?

First of all, negativity in our head increases the level of cortisol in the blood. Cortisol is also called the stress hormone. In moments of danger, this hormone is responsible for the instinct of self-preservation; it activates the body's defenses. That is, a short-term increase in cortisol levels helps us cope with emotional shock and counteract stress. But pessimism is not stress, and in this case, the increased level of cortisol in the blood works “idle”. If a person is a pessimist in life, then cortisol simply wears out his body. It's like pressing the gas pedal in a car with the hand brake on.

Doctors say: pessimists usually have high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels in the blood, and they are more likely to have heart problems. The negativity in the head severely affects all internal organs. How does this happen?

Due to their frequent increased activity, the following suffer from pessimism:

1. Adrenal glands

Negativity caused by a pessimistic attitude leads to negative emotions - irritation, disappointment and despondency. Therefore, the adrenal glands produce adrenaline, cortisol and other hormones that stimulate the heart, and it is forced to work at increased speed. Thus, the pessimist unjustifiably makes his engine work harder.

2. Liver

Negative thoughts lead to the liver beginning to process stored glycine into glucose (energy for the whole body). In this way, the body prepares for active actions, that is, it activates hidden reserves. The body is ready to either fight or run away. Completely useless work if you actually don’t need to run anywhere, and there’s no one to hit.

3. Kidneys and intestines

The vessels through which blood flows to the internal organs contract, because of this, the genitourinary system and digestion do not work actively enough. This is completely justified in a stressful situation, but absolutely destructive when there is no danger. There is only the illusion of danger or the expectation of trouble in the head of a pessimist.

3. Amygdala of the brain

Or the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for emotions. It is the amygdala that perceives “bad premonitions” as a real alarming event and triggers the mechanism for turning on the body’s defenses, the only possible response of the nervous system to a stressful situation.

4. Spinal cord

An alarm signal from the amygdala of the brain enters the spinal cord and, spreading through the nervous system, puts all the internal organs of the body on high alert. This can be compared to the excitement of an athlete before a competition. Of course, in the case of constant negativity in the head, these processes occur in a mild form, often not noticeable to a pessimist. But the trouble is that in the body of a pessimist, unlike an athlete, these processes are chronic.

5. Respiratory system

As a result of pseudostress, the respiratory muscles become more elastic, the lungs expand, and breathing quickens. This is the body’s reaction to negativity - it needs additional oxygen. In this way, a “chronic” pessimist exhausts his respiratory system.

6. Heart

The heartbeat quickens and the blood pressure rises. Pro-inflammatory cytokines, information molecules that provoke atherosclerosis, enter the bloodstream. And all this, as a rule, from scratch.

How to get rid of pessimistic thoughts?

You cannot get rid of pessimism in one day. It's a way of thinking and sometimes a way of life. It happens that a person with a pessimistic attitude tries to veil his own mistakes and failures - I can’t do anything, because this world, culturally speaking, is imperfect. Even if a person is really in trouble, you shouldn’t give up if your health is dear to you. You need to get rid of negativity, that is, replace it with optimism. Think of optimism as another muscle in your body. And to maintain muscle tone, they need to be trained. If you train them regularly, they grow and become stronger.”

Therefore, it is necessary to regularly upgrade your worldview with the help of positive thoughts.

1. Think about the past

Remember your childhood, past achievements, or simply events that increased your self-esteem. This way, you will not forget that your abilities and efforts can and should lead to consequences that are pleasant for you. If the reason for your pessimism is material difficulties, remember that perhaps you were once content with much less than you are now and were happy. An elementary example is a mobile phone. The first cell phones, weighing under 2 kilos, could only be afforded by moneybags, but today you use digital gadgets that they never even dreamed of.

2. Savor the present

Before you go to bed, think about the positive things that happened to you during the day. This is a great way to get the optimistic genie out of the bottle, even if you are generally filled with negative emotions. In the end, you can remember the episodes of the movie you liked.

3. Imagine the future

Imagine what your life should ideally look like in five years. The more details you come up with, the better. Then focus on what is achievable. Can't handle a new foreign car? No problem, get a used one! You don't have to look too far ahead. Before going to bed, think about an upcoming holiday or party where you will have a wonderful time. Fishing, hunting, meeting with friends or a visit to a beauty salon - whatever brings satisfaction, the more you savor the upcoming positive events, the better.

4. Avoid Negativity

Avoid watching news, depressing movies, and political talk shows on TV. Try to avoid pessimists like you. Do exactly the opposite. Watch comedies, humorous shows and communicate with positive and cheerful people. Try to look for the positive in everything, disarm your pessimism with the help of humor (even if it is sarcasm): Is there an economic crisis in the country? – Great, finally I’ll get rid of those extra pounds! Is the boss a tyrant? “If only he could see himself from the outside, he’s just a ridiculous, hysterical clown.” And so on.

5. Commit to change

A periodic change of environment and social circle will also help combat pessimistic thoughts. Meeting new people and unusual surroundings at least arouses curiosity, which displaces negativity and apathy. To do this, it is not necessary to dramatically change your lifestyle. Just periodically force yourself to discover something new.

I wish you health and OPTIMISM!

Defensive pessimism

Pessimists are by nature concerned with expecting the worst outcome in all uncertain situations. But maybe we are mistaken in thinking that pessimism is bad?

Julie Norem, a psychology researcher at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, says a certain degree of pessimism has its benefits.

In a book called The Positive Power of Negative Thinking, which received significant attention in the media, Norem argues that in many cases pessimism is a useful tool. She calls it "defensive pessimism"

Norem described “defensive pessimism” as an effective “strategy for coping with anxiety so that it does not negatively impact.

Defensive pessimism allows people to come up with viable problem-solving strategies and be better prepared for negative outcomes.

This allows pessimists to plan ahead and feel prepared for any obstacles they may have to face in the future.

Stop fighting pessimism. How thinking about bad things helps you achieve success

Next step: imagine specific situations where something goes wrong. The livelier the better. After this, you need to develop a plan for each such situation. The anxiety will pass, because you will be captivated by developing a strategy.

Let's take public speaking. A variety of problems can arise here. You'll trip over a ladder or table, get tangled in a microphone cord, have a presentation fail to open, or be bombarded with questions you weren't expecting to hear. Very worrying. What can be done about this?

Prepare thoroughly. Make sure that the wire is glued to the floor, you are wearing comfortable shoes, you have sent the presentation by email and copied it to a flash drive, re-read your speech and found information on issues that you are not 100% sure about.

Negative visualization

It is important to follow specific techniques. One of them is negative visualization. This technique was also used by the ancient Greek Stoic philosophers Seneca and Marcus Aurelius.

Think about what you have in your life right now. Dream job, work for money, successful or stalled, but still your own business, family, health, friends. Now imagine that you no longer have all this. How would you feel if all your creative aspirations, your favorite startup, and your loved ones suddenly disappeared?

No, this is not a masochistic practice or an attempt to ruin the mood for the rest of the day. Negative visualization has several positive properties:

1. The simplest thing is that you begin to appreciate what you have. The conscious possibility of losing gives you an additional incentive to get busy and develop further.
2. You plan all your expectations in advance and tell yourself honestly what could go wrong, how you will handle the situation, and whether you can prepare for it. The better prepared you are for the worst, the stronger you will be on your feet if disaster does happen.
3. Perhaps you will realize that all your fears are not so terrible. What if you lose your job? What if your business fails? We are accustomed to bringing our fears to such proportions that they seem larger than life. If you experience them at least temporarily and confront them, it will be easier for you to overcome them.

Try using negative visualization techniques when you find yourself feeling fearful and anxious about completing a task or starting a new endeavor. It will help you calm down and soberly assess the situation.

Dying plan

Defensive pessimism can help not only you personally, but also your team. For example, during brainstorming, when you all think about a new task together. Once the basic plan of action has been developed, the team moves on to creating a pre-death plan. This mechanism was invented by psychologist Gary Klein, one of the authors of the naturalistic decision-making technique.

The exercise begins with the leader asking the team to imagine a situation in which Plan A failed miserably. Each briefing participant should make a list of reasons that could lead to a disastrous result. It is important to pay more attention to scenarios that you would normally be unlikely to mention, so as not to appear too cautious and unsure of success.

The purpose of the exercise is to guess what could go wrong and carefully prepare for possible disasters. Consider how to minimize the impact of hypothetical problems. It may be worth hiring more people, accumulating resources, or providing for additional expenses. It is useful to decide in advance who you can turn to for help or advice.

How defensive pessimism can backfire on you

Most harm usually comes from other people. Firstly, from the optimists. If you decide to share your negative expectations with others, they will calm you down, suggest you relax, argue, and begin to devalue your emotions. In a world where positivity is still prevalent and considered the norm, pessimists may feel like there is something wrong with them. Self-confidence takes a hit and you may veer off course into defensive pessimism.

Others may also doubt your competence, especially if you are a leader. Unless it's a dying plan, it may be best not to share your feelings with colleagues.

Be careful not to go too far. There is a risk that instead of thinking about specific negative consequences, you may begin to dramatize the current situation. For example, if you have an important business meeting coming up, you think not only about specific possible failures and ways to prepare for them, but go further and sometimes think about completely unrelated situations: “The meeting will be a failure. I am a loser".

To avoid this, it is important to be specific in posing problems, think about their solution and formulate at least several ways to correct the situation. Try not to give in to anxiety, but to actively fight it.

Cover photo: tunart/Getty Images

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Literature

1. Norem J. The positive power of negative thinking: using defensive pessimism to manage anxiety and perform at your peak - Publisher: Basic Books - 2001 - pp: 239
2. Suls J. et al. Optimism following a tornado disaster //Personality and social psychology bulletin. – 2013. – T. 39. – No. 5. – pp. 691-702.
3. Kappes HB, Oettingen G. Positive fantasies about idealized futures sap energy // Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. – 2011. – T. 47. – No. 4. – pp. 719-729.
4. Lang FR et al. Forecasting life satisfaction across adulthood: Benefits of seeing a dark future? //Psychology and Aging. – 2013. – T. 28. – No. 1. – P. 249.

Disadvantages of Optimism

But optimism can sometimes hold you back from achieving your best results, both in your personal life and at work. High hopes for a better future can lead to poor decision making. People who like to dream about the future are unlikely to make their dreams come true.

One study shows that tornado survivors tend to become optimistic, thinking that the next time a tornado will not hit them. They believe that the shell does not hit the same crater twice. This type of thinking prevents people from preparing for negative events.

Researchers suggest that people who tend to dream about a bright future are less likely to actively carry out this scenario in real life. A series of studies conducted in the United States found that when participants indulged in positive fantasies about the future, imagining successfully achieving their goals actually drained them of the energy needed to achieve their goals.

Some types of optimism appear to be detrimental to young people's ability to solve the problems they face in their family relationships. Spouses who were overly optimistic about their expectations for their partner did not have a constructive approach to solving problems and difficulties in family life.

Although there is some research suggesting that pessimism may pose health risks, there are studies that highlight the protective effect against expected negative outcomes.

Although scientists have found a link between pessimistic thinking and mood disorders, it is optimists who are at greatest risk of depression after a difficult event.

Older people with pessimistic moods are less likely to develop depression. An analysis of four different studies examining the relationship between optimism, pessimism and depression suggests that positive fantasies may be a risk factor. This analysis showed that imagining vivid scenarios of a positive future influences mood, but the habit is ultimately a predictor of depression and other mood disorders.

A healthy dose of pessimism may protect against disability and mortality, according to scientists from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. The study shows that older adults who predict low life satisfaction have a lower risk of death and disability as the years go by, compared with peers who predict high life satisfaction.

So, the next time you're worried that your glass is half empty, rest assured that you're on the right track. This may give you that extra push to fill it to the brim.

Optimism vs pessimism

It is believed that when choosing between optimism and pessimism, you should lean towards the first. This seems to be a truism in self-development. But is everything so clear? Personally, are you an optimist or a pessimist? Perhaps you think that you have traits of both the first and second. Or maybe you consider yourself a realist - take an average position?

However, no matter who you see yourself as, your perception and attitude towards life events significantly influence your self-confidence, success and socialization.

Let's look at a simple example. Let's say you bought a lottery ticket but lost it. Then they found out that it was a winning one and you could get $100 from it.

Pessimistic approach

If you're primarily a pessimist, you probably won't even bother finding it because you'll be sure it's lying somewhere at the bottom of the sewer. Or, even worse, someone found it and is now very pleased with this fact. So you complain and make others feel sorry for you. At the same time, you feel like a complete loser.

Optimistic approach

If you are primarily an optimist, you will begin to convince yourself that you simply put the ticket somewhere and forgot, but you will soon find it. And so you continue to search for him day and night. But, unfortunately, you never find it. It's okay in the end - fate will return the favor in the future, there's no point in grieving.

You may be deceiving yourself with these thoughts, but at least you are filled with feelings of gratitude and appreciation, which is not bad, and has great value and strengthens the psyche.

Realistic approach

If you are a realist, you weigh the chances of finding a lottery ticket and whether the search is worth the effort and time. You quickly realize that searching for a ticket all day long is counterintuitive given how much you earn per hour. Instead, you examine the 5-6 most likely places, spending just a couple of minutes.

You then acknowledge that the ticket may not be found. And also the fact that you might accidentally run into him one of these days. And so you continue to live your life without worrying about it.

Of course, these three examples are slightly grotesque, and besides, the character and temperament of a person are not taken into account here, but this is an interesting theoretical experiment that we needed to draw some conclusions.

A lost lottery ticket makes a pessimist feel bad, unhappy. To an optimist, he allows himself to feel, perhaps even better than before the loss, which seems almost incredible, but this happens because true gratitude changes a lot. The realist decides not to feel anything special after a thorough analysis of the situation - there is no point in being happy or sad.

So optimism or pessimism?

No matter what problems you face or what failures happen to you, it is the attitude towards this that determines a person’s future - both from a financial, physical and psychological point of view. It is this attitude that can make or break a problem. Moreover, it itself usually becomes a problem .

We will look at pessimism and optimism through the lens of a serious problem. Let's say a certain person owes a large sum to the bank and loses his job. Then problems began in the family. After one of the quarrels, he drank too much, returned home, fell, broke his leg and ended up in the hospital.

The world through the prism of a pessimist

Like a pessimist, a person immediately thinks about the worst:

• just lost my job;
• cannot pay a loan, does not have enough to live on;
• family relationships are such that divorce is just around the corner;
• is in the hospital and temporarily cannot walk.

All these events fall on his shoulders. But, what’s even worse, he is completely lost, feels like a victim of circumstances: why should I do this? Why is this happening to me? These questions make him feel even worse. Then he becomes infected like a virus: negative thoughts are projected onto the entire world around him and other people.

From now on, our fictional hero will greet everything bad that happens with the thought: “Well, yes, with whom else if not with me.” Every month he will experience more and more irritation and hatred of himself and his life, which will ultimately lead to the development of victim syndrome.

Of course, this is an extreme degree of pessimism, but it happens quite often. What about reasonable pessimism? It also occurs and can be useful!

There is little that can unpleasantly surprise a pessimist. For example, he perceives bad news very philosophically and is not disappointed in people because he does not have high hopes for them.

One of the most significant advantages of pessimists is that they rarely get involved in scams. Where an optimist's investments go up in smoke, a pessimist doubts and remains with the money. However, this approach can also be a disadvantage.

Many people still argue whether imagining the worst-case scenario and preparing for it is a trait of an optimist or a pessimist. However, in the classical sense, this is, of course, the prerogative of a pessimistic person.

The world through the lens of an optimist

An optimist is always prepared for the fact that life will never be perfect. Contrary to popular belief, an optimistic person does not wear rose-colored glasses.

A huge advantage of optimism is great self-confidence. Sometimes this is all it takes to achieve a lot. But often such people are also energetic, patient, calm and resilient when faced with adversity. They rely on gratitude rather than guilt.

An optimist believes that difficulties are an integral part of life. However, he is also confident that setbacks and difficulties are temporary and can be overcome. He is always looking for new opportunities.

When faced with a difficult problem associated with an unexpected traffic jam, job loss, injury, he prefers not to make quick conclusions, does not feel sorry for himself and does not ask questions like “Why me?”

Each of the negative events described above in the mind of an optimist are simply problems that need to be solved. So instead of complaining or blaming, he works on the problem, trying to understand why things happened without jumping to conclusions.

Unlike a complete pessimist, an optimist is ready to try something new and take risks. If it doesn't work out, he will make adjustments to make it better next time. Learning experience is important. For optimistic people, opportunities always exist. In other words, there are no dead ends. And this is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Excessive optimism may be the reason that in a dead end, where you just need to turn back and go look for another road, the optimist will bang his head against the wall until the last moment in the hope of changing something. Change something that should have been let go a long time ago and not look for any approaches to it at all. Everything reasonable should be in moderation, and this principle is often alien to extreme optimism.

So which is better? Everyone must draw their own conclusion. Pessimism can take the form of learned helplessness and lead to victim syndrome, while extreme optimism causes a person to take reckless risks and lose everything. The truth, as we know, is somewhere in the middle.

But one thing is certain: the human psyche is a moving substance. In one situation you can act as an incorrigible optimist, and in another you can be a terrible pessimist. It is important to analyze in which case what is best suited.

We wish you good luck!

Based on materials from https://blog.iqmatrix.com.

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Key words:1Psychoregulation

Optimism

Optimism has both pros and cons. The advantages include the following:

• Optimists get sick much less often. This applies to physical and moral illnesses. An optimist does not experience depression; he does not dwell on the negative. According to statistics, thanks to this, optimists have a longer life expectancy than pessimists.
• More opportunities in life, as an optimist joyfully faces all obstacles, there are no boundaries for them.
• Friendly and welcoming. They are usually very popular in groups. This is the person who can cheer you up even in the most difficult moments, find something good in the current situation and even make you laugh.
• A source of positive energy. He energizes everyone all day, so people feel very comfortable around such a person.
• The ability to get out of difficult situations without getting hung up on the problem. An optimist is sure that if this happens, it means that it will be better this way. He sees everything in bright colors and never loses heart.
• Self confidence. Such a person knows that I can do it. Optimists have a passion for self-improvement, career growth, and success in life. All doors are open for them.

Disadvantages of optimism:

• Irrational in the financial sphere. They can freely accumulate a lot of loans, and not rush to repay, dragging themselves into a debt hole. Thus, an optimist often underestimates the riskiness of a situation.
• Sometimes they perceive what is happening too unrealistically. He so strongly attributes something positive to the situation, without seeing the very essence of the problem and ways to solve it. Sometimes they lack realism.
• Not mentally prepared for failure. He is always determined to win, so sometimes he is faced with a feeling of devastation and unjustified expectations. But this may make him struggle even more and achieve his plans.

Pessimistic thinking. Constructive approach to life

Thinking serves our desires, creating a bridge between dreams and reality in the form of professional and planned actions. Thinking also helps to decompose the world around us, situations, people into a language we understand and connect all processes into a single system.

Healthy thinking gives us simple life approaches to difficulties and circumstances, the ability to soberly assess, look for a way out, our own path and act. But how to identify and modernize the tactical methods of your thinking? After all, the mind is something ephemeral, abstract, at first glance manifested only through action - words, text, arithmetic operations. And if the mind is not tied to reality, a little “in itself,” then it is considered that this is already some kind of unhealthy tendency. And almost the only social norms for the development of the mind are encyclopedicism and scientific and design ingenuity. Although the mind (ideas, schemes, programs, creativity) is used by us at every moment of life in solving absolutely all everyday and business issues, and not only in its highest manifestations for the benefit of science.

And life’s wisdom brought out and hid the essence of thinking styles in the anecdotal layer of culture. An optimistic thinking style contains a basic desire to live well and happily. To do this, a person consciously lives life using himself as a source of desires, a decision-making center, a set of personal skills, individual resources and a sense of humor. The constructive thinking style contains a technical set of skills for assessing events and people according to certain parameters - prices, benefits, costs, etc. A person masters professional skills, studies processes in the world around him, accumulates resources and energy. A pessimistic style of thinking implements a program of destruction. A person consciously destroys already inadequate ideas, denies the unnecessary, superfluous, or unconsciously/uncontrollably expresses dissatisfaction, destroys everything around him and himself first of all.

Conscious and unconscious use of each thinking style has its side effects. Unconscious optimism leads to daydreaming and a preference for more rosy options for events, ignoring the real balance of power. Unconscious realism leads to excessive materiality and hoarding to the detriment of happiness. But conscious pessimism means abandoning old dogmas and habits.

Therefore, each thinking style should be recognized, taken under control and used as intended. Optimism is responsible for the formation of the vector, realism for practice, and pessimism serves as an indicator of the sick state of the system.

Optimistic" and "pessimistic" approaches to assessing the role of culture in the life of society

Postmodernism in the philosophy of culture.

Conventionally, all theories can be divided into two groups: “optimistic view of culture” and “pessimistic”. Supporters of the optimistic view view culture as a means of ennobling a person, turning him into a harmoniously developed personality. This approach was formed in the modern era, when the entire society was subject to reform under the influence of revolutionary euphoria. One of the representatives of the optimistic view was Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1833), who believed that cultural progress leads to the creation of a unified human civilization. He viewed culture in the context of evolution, the transition from “barbarism” to a “civilized” state. The meaning of history according to Herder is the separation of the human from the animal. Culture is interpreted as the rebirth of man. Herder wrote: “We can, if we wish, give this second birth of a person, passing through his entire life, a name associated either with the cultivation of the land - “culture”, or with the image of light - “enlightenment” [14]. Herder considered respect for the history and culture of other peoples to be a necessary element of education. He stood on the position of continuity and universality of the socio-cultural process, believing that there are and cannot be any contradictions between the universal achievements of culture and folk culture, that all cultures represent a unity leading to the creation of human civilization.

The founders of sociology of the 19th century, G. Spencer and O. Comte , believed that progress was an integral feature of the development of European countries. Optimistic theories also include the theories of N. Ya. Danilevsky, P. Sorokin, K. Jaspers ( we will consider them below), as well as the concepts of W. Rostow (theory of stages of economic growth), B. Aron (theory of a unified industrial society), D. Bell (theory of post-industrial society), which emphasize the enormous importance of the cultural component in the life of society.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1773), a French thinker of the Enlightenment, can be considered pessimistic In his work “On the Influence of Sciences on Morals,” the writer expressed a scandalous idea at that time about the negative influence of art on the spiritual state of society, proving that it “spoils” public morality, which is degrading in parallel with the progress of culture. Rousseau saw a radical way of “salvation” from the fruits of civilization in a return to nature, to the origins. The philosopher introduced the term “alienation” into use, characterizing with it those processes that scientific and technological progress inevitably causes in society: civilization more and more “opposes” man, his nature, the achievements of scientific thought, the fruits of creative efforts ultimately lead to that human inventions are beginning to “threaten” man. Later, this idea was reflected in science fiction novels about the victory of robots over people, about uncontrollable chemical and physical disasters caused by human curiosity. Modern Rousseauists refer to his calculations, characterizing the current dependence of political stability in the world on atomic weapons, the creation of which humanity owes to the scientific genius and ambition of some of its representatives.

F. Nietzsche can also be called pessimistic

Z. Freud, C. G. Jung, O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, M. Heidegger,

THE MEANING OF SUFFERING

The common belief that a pessimistic outlook on things has an adverse effect on health and that smiling is healthier than frowning turned out to be not entirely true. Psychologists have found that even nervous people, burdened with various worries and misfortunes, inclined to always complain about fate and pain in all parts of the body, visit doctors no more often than their cheerful peers, and die no earlier than optimists. In other words, even deep pessimism - not behavioral, not defensive, not constructive, but deep and all-encompassing pessimism - does not harm health at all.

The German philosopher Schopenhauer was a pessimist, who, not without reason, believed that suffering is a source of great things, because it increases strength tenfold and forces one to be inventive. Everyone knows Napoleon’s phrase, which he said when he was asked what the main secret of his strategy was: “We must, without hesitation, get involved in battle, and then we’ll see.” This principle is professed by most strategic optimists.

Probably, you should not thoughtlessly drive away any fears and anxieties, because often they serve not so much as obstacles and restrictions, but as warnings. And constant cheerfulness is an unattainable utopia. Everyone needs to learn to appreciate any of their mental states (especially since the predominance of one or another depends only on the individual psychophysical constitution) and extract the maximum benefit from it. This is confirmed by book ratings. The book of the English psychologist Adam Philips, “Becoming Sane,” suddenly burst into the top ranks in the USA and Great Britain, filled with the deepest skepticism about the newfangled psychology of happiness. In it, the author, contrary to the prevailing trend, does not talk about a happy person at all, but about a reasonable, sober, sane and balanced person, which does not necessarily provide for personal happiness, and sometimes even, on the contrary, excludes it.

According to Phillips, the countless guides to finding happiness do not so much provide solutions to a problem as they constitute a serious problem themselves. Happiness cannot be a goal achieved through certain techniques. It only sometimes visits a person as a result of his full, healthy and meaningful life in one way or another emerging reality. And this reality is sometimes such that it would be more than strange to rejoice at it. And a sane person is fully aware of this, experiencing a variety of feelings in connection with the events and phenomena of the world around him.

A negative reaction to negative events is normal and natural, and it shows the difference between a sane person and a blissful idiot who is not aware of what is happening around him. The authors of “positive” guides wean people away from an adequate perception of the world, offering instead a caramel-strewn path to an emotional dead end. If, having believed them, you consider your sadness, anxiety or fear as abnormal states and strive in every possible way to change them into optimistic delight, this will not end well! The idea that the world is beautiful is touching, but completely unrealistic - everything is bizarrely mixed in it, good and bad. Only the person who correctly understands this and feels it adequately, who knows how to rejoice and grieve, worry and be blissful, is truly mentally healthy.

Features of communicating with pessimists

When communicating with pessimists, it is easy to succumb to sympathy or become infected with negativity. Therefore, when contacting them, experts recommend adhering to certain rules. First, analyze the person's behavior and determine its cause. Not all pessimists actually suffer from constant worry about what is happening. There is a category of people who publicly demonstrate their torment and deliberately exaggerate problems. This is done in order to arouse sympathy and then play on it to one’s advantage. For example, shifting the task to someone else’s shoulders.

Having discovered an attempt at manipulation in a conversation with a pessimist, it is important to delicately but confidently nip it in the bud. Otherwise, a demonstrative pessimist will turn into a parasite, on whom a lot of time and effort can be spent.

If there is no manipulation in a person’s behavior and he is truly mired in dark beliefs, adhere to the following recommendations:

1. Accept the person for who he is. Don't try to impose your beliefs and teach life.
2. When communicating, keep the focus on constructiveness. Get away from meaningless moaning by inviting your pessimistic interlocutor to talk about possible solutions to the situation.
3. Don't take the negativity on yourself. After communication, do not rush to succumb to the feelings of a pessimistic interlocutor.

What to pay attention to if your child is prone to pessimism

To begin with, it is also worth analyzing the reasons for this behavior. If the problem is negative family attitudes, you will need to work with parents

It is the family that has the greatest influence on the child’s behavior, which is why it is so important to take care of a healthy home climate. If pessimism manifests itself even in such conditions, it is necessary to determine the source of its appearance

There are two options:

• negative influence from outside;
• an innate feature of the psyche.

To correct the behavior of a pessimistic child in such situations, it is worth spending more time in games and communication.

At the same time, focus on positive life moments and achievements. It is also necessary to work on developing a sense of safety and security. If you cannot free your child from the tendency to plunge into negativity on your own, you will need the help of a qualified psychologist.

Otherwise, in the future, the pessimistic child will turn into an adult with the problems described above. They can interfere with his full development and achievement of happiness in life.