Toxic positivity

Discover in Toxic Positivity how to resist the tyranny of positivity and the relentless pursuit of happiness and self-development.

With each passing day, we're living at a faster pace. The pursuit of success, happiness, and self-development has become more intense—and this can ultimately have serious consequences for our lives, as bestselling author Svend Brinkmann explains in Toxic Positivity .

Stress, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and increasingly less meaningful social interactions become recurring. As a result, we become more vulnerable to self-help, therapy, coaching, mindfulness techniques, positive psychology, and personal development discourses in general, propagated by irresponsible and unfounded people. In Toxic Positivity , Danish philosopher and psychologist Svend Brinkmann suggests that to find true happiness and cultivate healthy relationships with those around us and ourselves, we must learn to stand firm.

Written as an insightful seven-step guide, but intended as an "anti-self-help" guide, this work opposes some of the ideas about positivity and personal development so prevalent in today's society. Inspired by Stoic philosophy, Svend Brinkmann encourages the reader to stand firm, focusing on self-control, peace of mind, dignity, a sense of duty, and reflection on the finite nature of life.

Toxic positivity alerts us to the pitfalls of the unbridled pursuit of personal development and leads us to reflect on the true meaning of life and how to live more meaningfully.