Eight Years Of “Pollyanna Therapy” Which Changed The World!

Janov Reflections: The Pollyanna Effect of Looking for the Positive (Click to access)

My comment:

Eight years of “Pollyanna therapy” which changed the world!

Sometimes we only respond to effects which reflect ourselves and our underlying needs and feelings. We often only have a preoccupation with recognizing what is wrong. It is in our nature to do it. We are so focused on a particular tree species that we do not appreciate the beauty of a forest.

When I lived in the US in 1978 and 79, the country went through a severe crisis, financially and emotionally, in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The economy went bad, the dollar was knocked down (which, however, was to my advantage), the general confidence was low and an unusually human and sympathetic president, Jimmy Carter, was unable to lift the mood significantly. 

Then you could talk about a need for a Pollyanna Effect in the United States. Hollywood delivered in this state an option. From California came a governor, former b-actor, and president of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors. A seasoned veteran who should actually have been retired. We were many who were terrified when this anti-communist, former democrat, with his views on weapon, morning prayers, and economic laissez-faire attitude took over power. 

However, during his eight years in power, he succeeded with his Pollyanna Effect, largely reversing the confidence and the economy in the United States. "In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.” With charm, straight language (calling the Soviet Union an evil empire), economic sanctions, he participated in the highest degree to tear down the Berlin Wall and dissolve the Soviet Union. Without a single shot was exchanged !!!!! Talented Russians, including politicians, have afterwards confessed, not without praise and thanks, the effects Reagans Pollyanna-propelled sanctions achieved.

In a neurotic world, there is so much to criticize and improve, but there are, after all, also occasions to celebrate someone (such as a Picasso) when this person with his pain propelled images lift us into a different world or out of a depressed state. My own obsession / positive dream that one day to find an explanation for my epilepsy mystery became in this way, with a kind of  Pollyanna Effect, reality.

Jan Johnsson