Half Empty, Half Full: Understanding the Psychological Roots of Optimism

In this account of the development and treatment of pessimism, Vaughan (The Talking Cure; Viagra) contends that a pessimistic personality results from an individual's earliest experiences of frustration. These lead to the formation of cortical loops in the brain that encode the physiological basis for the expectation of disappointment and an overall negative outlook. Although temperamental traits are often viewed as intractable, Vaughan argues that psychotherapy aimed at promoting a sense of self-control over negative emotional states ""can gradually chip away at long ingrained cortical patterns and gradually replace pessimism with optimism."" But what is pessimism? Is it a truly unique form of psychopathology? By linking pessimism to original parent-child interactions, Vaughan implicitly ties it to ""basic mistrust"" or an ""insecure attachment."" However, Vaughan does not explain how ""pessimism"" differs from the depression and anger that have traditionally been associated with early experiences of frustration. This lack of rigor is accentuated by prose in which such stock phrases as ""the ties that bind"" or ""pushing the envelope"" stand for concrete descriptions of the problem of affective disorder and its treatment. Written for a general audience, this book lacks the conceptual clarity necessary for understanding psychological despair. (May)