Verified by 
Key points
- With "Pollyanna syndrome," the subject remains stubbornly optimistic and upbeat regardless of the external circumstances.
- There are situations in life in which sadness is the most appropriate emotion.
- A shallow, constant merriness is based on denial. A strategy of flexible optimism is a better option.
Pollyanna, the story of an orphan girl with a relentless and very contagious positive attitude to life, was written by Eleanor H. Porter about a century ago. It was an enormous success. The same unconditional positivity finds its modern equivalent in the "positive thinking" self-help movement, which is enormously popular in social media.
The Pollyanna Principle
Named after this charming girl, the "Pollyanna principle" in psychology refers to the fact that we tend to look at the past with rose-tinted spectacles. The term "Pollyanna syndrome" has also been used, although it isn't a clinical syndrome as such. It is instead a state of mind, one in which the subject remains stubbornly optimistic and upbeat regardless of the external circumstances. The concept has been applied to the financial markets, to illustrate the fact that being carried away with optimism when the circumstances don't warrant it can have disastrous consequences. Think of the 2007 financial crisis.
No doubt, there are certain personalities who have a naturally sunnier disposition than others, but a pollyannish approach to life goes beyond a mere state of general cheerfulness and joviality. The optimism of the pollyannian, if I'm allowed to coin a word, is more ambitious than this. He or she won't hesitate to go into full-blown denial if their circumstances change at any point and become obviously incompatible with their ongoing optimism.
And here is where the problem resides because there are situations in life in which sadness is the most appropriate emotion. It allows us to process and work through losses and other difficult adjustments. Indeed, a normal day inevitably contains a variety of different emotions, both good and bad. A well-balanced psychological state demands a degree of awareness of the difficulties of life, and such awareness would be at odds with a shallow merriness based on denial.
When Reality Catches Up
Pretending that life is as easy as a walk in the park and that any possible adversities can be overcome with the help of some positive thinking and a smile on our face is unrealistic. It can in fact be counterproductive. Reality will eventually catch up with us, and, when it does, the contrast between this reality and the artificiality of the Pollyanna position will be even more painful than it needed to be. Even Pollyanna herself gets very sad and downcast in the novel when she becomes paralyzed following an accident. She eventually manages to pick herself up and become positive again, but the period of depressed adjustment between her accident and the start of her recovery had been quite appropriate and perfectly natural.
It is much better to adopt a strategy of flexible optimism and to incorporate into this an acceptance of the sadness, challenges, losses, and adjustments that we all have to face in life. When adversity finally comes, we will be better prepared.
