Andrade Gabriel
Assistant Professor, College of Medicine, Ajman University, United Arab Emirates.
J Med Ethics Hist Med. 2019 Dec 21;12:18. doi: 10.18502/jmehm.v12i18.2148. eCollection 2019.
In continuation with the New Thought movement that arose in the United States in the 19 Century, there is now a massive self-help industry that markets books and seminars. This industry has also extended to healthcare in the form of positive thinking, i.e., the idea that happy thoughts are essential for health. While some of these claims may seem reasonable and commonsensical, they are not free of problems. This article posits that positive thinking has some ethical underpinnings. Extreme positive thinking may promote alternative forms of medicine that ultimately substitute effective treatment, and this is unethical. The emphasis on positive thinking for cancer patients may be too burdensome for them. Likewise, unrestricted positive thinking is not necessarily good for mental health. After considering the ethics of positive thinking, this article proposes a more realistic approach.
延续19世纪在美国兴起的新思想运动，如今有一个庞大的自助产业，它推销书籍和举办研讨会。这个产业还以积极思考的形式延伸到了医疗保健领域，即认为快乐的思想对健康至关重要。虽然其中一些说法似乎合理且符合常识，但它们并非没有问题。本文认为积极思考有一些伦理基础。极端的积极思考可能会推广替代医学形式，最终取代有效的治疗方法，而这是不道德的。对癌症患者强调积极思考可能对他们来说负担过重。同样，无限制的积极思考不一定对心理健康有益。在考虑了积极思考的伦理问题后，本文提出了一种更现实的方法。
