The Power of Positive Thinking

The Power of Positive Thinking is a self-help book by Norman Vincent Peale, originally published in 1952. It proposes the method of "Positive Thinking". It basically aims at ensuring that the reader achieves a permanent constructive and optimistic attitude through constant positive influence of his conscious thought (e.g. by using affirmations or visualizations) and consequently achieves a higher satisfaction and quality of life. While early contributors in the positive thinking movement had built on theoretical justifications (like Phineas Parkhurst Quimby, Ralph Waldo Trine, Prentice Mulford), the The Power of Positive Thinking made more use of positive case histories and practical instructions.

The Power of Positive Thinking is Peale's most widely read work. First published in 1952, it stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 186 consecutive weeks, and according to the publisher, Simon & Schuster, the book has sold around five million copies. The fact that the book has sold five million copies is printed on the cover of the current edition in both paperback and hard cover, and directly contradicts exaggerated claims that the book has sold more than 20 million copies in 42 languages. The publisher also contradicts the translation claim, saying the book has been translated into only 15 languages. Nearly half of the sales of the book (2.1 mil.) occurred before 1958, and by 1963, the book had still only sold two million copies according to Peale. Since then, the book has sold less than three million copies over the past 50 years.

Peale's works came under criticism from several mental health experts, one of whom directly said Peale was a con man and a fraud. These critics appeared in the early 1950s after the publication of The Power of Positive Thinking. When Peale came under heavy criticism from the mental health community for the book, Peale's earlier colleague Blanton (a psychoanalyst) distanced himself from Peale and refused to publicly endorse the book. Blanton did not allow Peale to use his name in The Power of Positive Thinking and declined to defend Peale publicly when he came under criticism. As scholar Donald Meyer describes it: "Peale evidently imagined that he marched with Blanton in their joint labors in the Religio-psychiatric Institute. This was not exactly so." Meyer notes that Blanton's own book, Love or Perish (1956), "contrasted so distinctly at so many points with the Peale evangel," of "positive thinking" that these works had virtually nothing in common.

...
Wikipedia