From 1952 to 1962, Hill taught his Philosophy of Personal Achievement—Lectures on Science of Success in association with W. Clement Stone.
During 1960, Hill and Stone co-authored the book Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude.
Norman Vincent Peale is quoted saying that Hill and Stone "have the rare gift of inspiring and helping people" and that he owes "them both a personal debt of gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings."
Stone emphasized using a "positive mental attitude" to succeed. Stone adopted the motto of his mentor, Napoleon Hill, "Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve (with PMA)."
In 1960, Stone teamed up with Napoleon Hill to author Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. The book Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude includes the following testimonial from the Rev. Robert H. Schuller on the inside front cover page: "Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude is one of the ten books that has most impacted my faith and my philosophy...no person's education is complete without the concepts articulated in it so wisely and so well."
Norman Vincent Peale said that Stone and Hill "have the rare gift of inspiring and helping people...In fact, I owe them both a personal debt of gratitude for the helpful guidance I have received from their writings."
Stone and Hill also founded a monthly digest magazine, entitled Success Unlimited. In 1962, Stone wrote the Success System That Never Fails, in which he suggested how to become successful and have a healthy, productive lifestyle. In 1964, he and Norma Lee Browning collaborated on writing The Other Side of the Mind.
Stone, W. Clement; Browning, Norma Lee (1964). The Other Side of the Mind. Prentice Hall. Retrieved 15 July 2009.
Stone, W. Clement., (1962) The Success System That Never Fails, Prentice Hall, ISBN 1-60459-931-6
Hill, Napoleon; Stone, W. Clement (2007) [1977]. Og Mandino (ed.). Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-4159-2. Retrieved 15 July2009.
Who is Norman Vincent Peale?
Norman Vincent Peale (May 31, 1898 – December 24, 1993) was an American minister and author who is best known for his work in popularizing the concept of positive thinking, especially through his best-selling book The Power of Positive Thinking. He served as the pastor of Marble Collegiate Church, New York, from 1932 until 1984, leading a Reformed Church in America congregation.
Peale was a personal friend of President Richard Nixon and has influenced other US presidents as well. His ideas and techniques received criticism from church figures and from psychiatric professionals.
Peale's works were criticized by several mental health experts who denounced his writings as bad for mental health, and concluded that Peale was a "con man and a fraud," and a "Confidence Man." These critics appeared in the early 1950s after the publication of The Power of Positive Thinking.
One critique of The Power of Positive Thinking noted that the book contained anecdotes that are hard to substantiate. Critics noted many of the testimonials that Peale quoted as supporting his philosophy were unnamed, unknown and unsourced.
Examples included a "famous psychologist,":52 a two-page letter from a "practicing physician",:150 another "famous psychologist",:169 a "prominent citizen of New York City",:88 and dozens, if not hundreds, more unverifiable quotations.
Similar scientific studies of questionable validity are also cited. As psychiatrist R.C. Murphy wrote, "All this advertising is vindicated as it were, by a strict cleaving to the side of part truth," and referred to the work and the quoted material as "implausible and woodenly pious".
Agreeing with Murphy is William Lee Miller, professor in religious studies at the University of Virginia, who wrote an extensive article called “Some Negative Thinking About Norman Vincent Peale.” After reviewing the entire Peale library, Miller concluded that the books “are hard on the truth,” and that “the later books are worse” than the earlier ones. Miller challenged the plausibility and truthfulness of Peale’s testimonials with “Great Men” in his books, almost all of whom were unnamed, unknown and unverifiable.
“In Dr. Peale’s books these men turn out to talk just like Dr. Peale…. There is a continuing recurring episode in his books that goes like this: Peale meets Great Man; Peale humbly asks Great Man for his secret (his formula, technique); Great Man tells Peale his strikingly Peale-like secret (formula, technique)….”
Miller also mocks the success formulas these “great men” reveal, such as the unnamed newspaper editor who credits repeating a single phrase [a technique in authohypnosis] as the reason for his success.
The unnamed editor’s “secret is card in wallet with words to the effect that successful man is successful.” Miller explains: “There is never the suggestion that hard work might be involved in achievement. There are no demands on the reader.” Miller wrote “All this is hard on the truth, but it is good for the preacher’s popularity. It enables him to say exactly what his hearers want to hear.”
Miller further mocks Peale’s claims that his methods of “religion” are scientifically proven. Miller quotes Peale: “The laws are so precise and have been so often demonstrated… that religion may be said to form an exact science.” Peale provides no scientific evidence in his books to support this claim. He provides no evidence that his methods and “techniques” have been scientifically tested or proven to work.
There are no scientific references supporting Peale, no footnotes, no index, no bibliography, no recommendations for further readings, almost no evidence of any kind presented in the Peale books.
Miller concluded that the Peale claims were untruthful and unsupported by evidence. Miller wrote that in order to gain followers “He [Peale] is willing to use without flinching the most blatant appeals and to promise without stint.”
A second critique of Peale was that he attempted to conceal that his techniques for giving the reader absolute self-confidence and deliverance from suffering are a well known form of hypnosis, and that he persuaded his readers to follow his beliefs through a combination of false evidence and self-hypnosis (autosuggestion), disguised by the use of terms which may sound more benign from the reader's point of view ("techniques", "formulas", "methods", "prayers", and "prescriptions").One author called Peale's book "The Bible of American autohypnotism".:264
While his techniques have been debated by psychologists, Peale said his theological practice and strategy was directed more at self-analysis, forgiveness, character development, and growth much like the Jesuits of the Catholic Church.
Psychiatrist R. C. Murphy wrote "Self knowledge, in Mr. Peale's understanding is unequivocally bad: self hypnosis is good." Murphy added that repeated hypnosis defeats an individual's self-motivation, self-knowledge, unique sense of self, sense of reality, and ability to think critically.
Murphy describes Peale's understanding of the mind as inaccurate, "without depth", and his description of the workings of the mind and the unconscious as deceptively simplistic and false: "It is the very shallowness of his concept of 'person' that makes his rules appear easy ... If the unconscious of man ... can be conceptualized as a container for a small number of psychic fragments, then ideas like 'mind-drainage' follow. So does the reliance on self-hypnosis, which is the cornerstone of Mr. Peale's philosophy.'"
Psychologist Albert Ellis, founder of the branch of psychology known as cognitive psychology, compared the Peale techniques with those of French psychologist, hypnotherapist and pharmacist Émile Coué, and Ellis said that the repeated use of these hypnotic techniques could lead to significant mental health problems.
Ellis, ranked by the American Psychological Association as the second most influential psychologist of the 20th century (behind Carl Rogers, but ahead of Sigmund Freud), documented in several of his books the many individuals he has treated who suffered mental breakdowns from following Peale's teachings. Ellis described one of his case studies:
"One of my 50-year-old clients, Sidney, read everything that Norman Vincent Peale ever wrote, went to many of his sermons at Marble Collegiate Church, and turned many of his friends onto trusting completely in God and in the Reverend Peale to cure them of all their ills. When some of these friends, in spite of their vigorous positive thinking, wound up in the mental hospital, and when Sidney had to turn to massive doses of tranquilizers to keep himself going, he became disillusioned..."
Fortunately, Ellis' client began attending therapy and workshop groups at his clinic (The Albert Ellis Institute), and through cognitive behavioral therapy (at that time, known as Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, or REBT), he was able to improve his mental health and reduce his medications.
Ellis' writings repeatedly warn the public not to follow the Peale message. Ellis contends the Peale approach is dangerous, distorted, unrealistic. He compares the black or white view of life that Peale teaches to a psychological disorder (borderline personality disorder), perhaps implying that dangerous mental habits which he sees in the disorder may be brought on by following the teaching. "In the long run [Peale's teachings] lead to failure and disillusionment, and not only boomerang back against people, but often prejudice them against effective therapy."
A third critique was that Peale's philosophy was based on exaggerating the fears of his readers and followers, and that this exaggerated fear inevitably leads to aggression and the destruction of those considered "negative". Peale's views were critically reviewed in a 1955 article by psychiatrist R. C. Murphy, published in The Nation, titled "Think Right: Reverend Peale's Panacea".
Donald B. Meyer seemed to agree with this assessment, presenting similar warnings of a religious nature. In his article "Confidence Man", Meyer wrote, "In more classic literature, this sort of pretension to mastery has often been thought to indicate an alliance with a Lower rather than a Higher power."
The mastery Peale speaks of is not the mastery of skills or tasks, but the mastery of fleeing and avoiding one's own "negative thoughts". Meyer wrote, exaggerated fear inevitably leads to aggression: "Battle it is; Peale, in sublime betrayal of the aggression within his philosophy of peace, talks of 'shooting' prayers at people."
Psychologist Martin Seligman, former APA president and the founder of the branch of psychology known as Positive Psychology, differentiated Peale's positive thinking from his own positive psychology, while acknowledging their common roots.
It is important to see the difference: Is Positive Psychology just positive thinking warmed over?
Positive Psychology has a philosophical connection to positive thinking, but not an empirical one. The Arminian Heresy (discussed at length in the notes for Chapter 5) is at the foundations of Methodism, and Norman Vincent Peale's positive thinking grows out of it. Positive Psychology is also tied at its foundations to the individual freely choosing, and in this sense both endeavors have common roots.
But Positive Psychology is also different in significant ways from positive thinking, in that Positive Psychology is based on scientific accuracy while positive thinking is not, and that positive thinking could even be fatal in the wrong circumstances.
First, positive thinking is an armchair activity. Positive Psychology, on the other hand, is tied to a program of empirical and replicable scientific activity.
Second, Positive Psychology does not hold a brief for positivity. There is a balance sheet, and in spite of the many advantages of positive thinking, there are times when negative thinking is to be preferred. Although there are many studies that correlate positivity with later health, longevity, sociability, and success, the balance of the evidence suggests that in some situations negative thinking leads to more accuracy.
Where accuracy is tied to potentially catastrophic outcomes (for example, when an airplane pilot is deciding whether to de-ice the wings of her airplane), we should all be pessimists. With these benefits in mind, Positive Psychology aims for the optimal balance between positive and negative thinking.
Third, many leaders in the Positive Psychology movement have spent decades working on the "negative" side of things. Positive Psychology is a supplement to negative psychology, not a substitute.
Seligman went on to say "Positive thinking often involves trying to believe upbeat statements such as 'Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better,' in the absence of evidence or even in the face of contrary evidence. ... Learned optimism, in contrast, is about accuracy".
Another difference experts noted was that though Seligman describes his positive psychology as a self-empowering program completely within the ability of the individual to achieve on his or her own, experts described positive thinking as disempowering to the individual and a religion of weakness, where individuals are told by Peale they cannot overcome their negative circumstances without his autosuggestive "techniques," which he claims will give them the power of God.
As Meyer quotes Peale as saying, "No man, however resourceful or pugnacious, is a match for so great an adversary as a hostile world. He is at best a puny and impotent creature quite at the mercy of the cosmic and social forces in the midst of which he dwells."
Meyer noted that Peale always "reacted to the image of harshness with flight rather than competitive fight", and the only solution Peale offers out of this state of helplessness are his autosuggestive "techniques", which he claims will give people the power of God. Meyer adds that the proof that positive thinking cannot work is that according to Peale, even with God's power on one's side, one still cannot face negative reality, which is always stronger. Meyer, like Seligman, noted that such unrealistic thinking by a positive thinker could easily be fatal.
In 1935, Peale started a radio program, The Art of Living, which lasted for 54 years. Under sponsorship of the National Council of Churches he moved into television when the new medium arrived.
In the meantime he had begun to edit the magazine Guideposts and to write books. His sermons were mailed monthly. During the Great Depression, Peale teamed with James Cash Penney, founder of J.C. Penney & Co.; Arthur Godfrey, the radio and TV personality; and Thomas J. Watson, President and Founder of IBM, to form the first board of 40Plus, an organization that helps unemployed managers and executives.
Peale was a prolific writer; The Power of Positive Thinking is by far his 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 and Schuster, the book has sold around 5 million copies.
The fact that the book has sold 5 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 2 million copies according to Peale.
Since then, the book has sold less than 3 million copies over the past 60 years. Some of his other popular works include:
- The Art of Living, A Guide to Confident Living,
- The Tough-Minded Optimist, and
- Inspiring Messages for Daily Living.
In 1947 Peale co-founded (along with educator Kenneth Beebe) The Horatio Alger Association. This organization aims to recognize and honor Americans who have been successful in spite of difficult circumstances.
Other organizations founded by Peale include the Peale Center, the Positive Thinking Foundation and Guideposts Publications, all of which aim to promote Peale's theories about positive thinking.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Vincent_Peale