Tragic Optimism

Tragic optimism: the search for meaning during the inevitable tragedies of human existence. 

This phrase was coined by psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl and is discussed in this mid-August article from The Atlantic: The Opposite of Toxic Positivity

The summary of the article reads: 

Countless books have been written on the “power of gratitude” and the importance of counting your blessings, but that sentiment may feel like cold comfort during the coronavirus pandemic, when blessings have often seemed scant. Refusing to look at life’s darkness and avoiding uncomfortable experiences can be detrimental to mental health. This “toxic positivity” is ultimately a denial of reality. Telling someone to “stay positive” in the middle of a global crisis is missing out on an opportunity for growth, not to mention likely to backfire and only make them feel worse. As the gratitude researcher Robert Emmons of UC Davis writes, “To deny that life has its share of disappointments, frustrations, losses, hurts, setbacks, and sadness would be unrealistic and untenable. Life is suffering. No amount of positive thinking exercises will change this truth.” (The Atlantic, August 18, 2021, article authored by Scott Barry Kaufman) 

I was deeply moved by Viktor Frankl's book Man's Search For Meaning and I have read plenty from Dr. Robert Emmons. I agree with both of them. We truly experience life and ongoing transformation when we truly experience all the emotions that come with it, the excruciating challenges and the immeasurable joy. 

Finding meaning and gratefulness doesn't diminish or ignore the pain and struggle, it allows us to heal and have energy to keep going. Everyone I know has known pain and suffering. It's not a contest and let's not make it one. 

I get a little sensitive about this discussion because sometimes speaking of the benefits of living gratefully brings judgment by cynics and skeptics. Phrases like pie-in-the-sky, overly cheerful, pollyannish, and hopelessly optimistic come to mind. 

As it turns out, the scoffers tend to be the ones who never give the practice of living gratefully a fair shake. It takes vulnerability and perseverance, patience and humility. Like any other healthy habit, it doesn't always come easily, but it does always yield generative energy we so need individually and collectively in these times.

Tragic optimism: the search for meaning during the inevitable tragedies of human existence. Tragedies on small and large scales aren't the only inevitable things that await us. Joy, or joylets at least, await in the pauses and deep attention to what matters most to us and within us.