Episode 5: The Peril of Positive Thinking

This final episode of the Norman Vincent Peale series opens on a different note: a conversation between Kristin and Jeff about how to deal with the radicalization and potential violence of former friends, family members, and fellow travelers.

After that, though, the conclusion of the three-part series arrives with a more detailed look at Peale’s best-known book, The Power Of Positive Thinking. Thick with anonymous anecdotes and assurances that success is never more than a trusting prayer away, Peale’s book offers a strange glimpse of what problems he recognized and what kinds of lives he considered respectable and worth pursuing.

Finally, the episode wraps with something new: a trip through the F-Test, a 1940s-era personality test intended to measure susceptibility to authoritarian thinking. Kristin and Jeff examine Peale’s positions and views in light of the test, discussing the ways different groups and individuals in the Christian Right align and conflict with the test’s framework.

Books, articles, and links mentioned in this episode include:

• Sheriff’s deputy fired after making violent threats on secret Parler account, on The Daily Dot

• On Murder and The Other, by Jeff Eaton on Medium

• God’s Salesman: Norman Vincent Peale and the Power of Positive Thinking, by Carol V.R. George

• The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale

• The F-Scale Test: Testing receptivity to authoritarian/fascist beliefs, hosted by IDR Labs

• The Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale, hosted by Open Psychometrics