**TL;DR: Believing positive illusions make us feel superficially happy, but prevents us from actualizing our potential.** A major tenet of the modern psychological subfield of Positive Psychology is positive illusion. [According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology](https://dictionary.apa.org/positive-illusion), positive illusion is “a belief about oneself that is pleasant or positive and that is held regardless of its truth.” Even if untrue, self-talk that inflates one’s self-image can pull people out of ruts by “focus[ing] on strengths instead of weaknesses [and on] building the good in life instead of repairing the bad”([Positive Psychology.com](https://positivepsychology.com/what-is-positive-psychology-definition/)). Being constantly subjected to an internal critic is part of being human. With all the euphony of a shrieking kettle, our superego ceaselessly derides us for eating too much, for sleeping too much (or too little), for not working hard enough, for not for not being creative enough, for not being attentive enough – for simply not being enough. Indeed, inflating our self-image with the hot air of positive illusions overrides the uninterrupted stream of self-contempt we blast ourselves with for not living up to our ideals. It feels good to admire flawless photoshops of ourselves, and certainly feels even better to believe that we are those photoshops. Ultimately, however, positive illusions are self-defense mechanisms. They are filters we use to ignore the failings lurking within ourselves, are bridges we use to bypass – rather than explore – the dark crevasses of our psyches. Yes, our internal critic mercilessly bombards the walls of our mind, hurling criticisms to find weak points in our psychology. Our psychological walls crumble when the superego hits weak points – hits insecurities – with its criticism. We are pained when sections of our minds crumble, because the insecurities hidden behind those walls are nakedly exposed. Yet, instead of fighting the uncomfort of our insecurities by painting veneer over our blemishes, what if we were receptive to the attacks on our psyche? What if we saw psychological pain as the feedback necessary to identify and shore up areas of our life in which we are falling short? Our internal critic is dogged and often merciless, but it’s also useful. It lets us know when we fall short of our goals and fail to actualize our potential. It keeps us on an upwards trajectory by hurling stones when we act in ways that worsen our conditions by, as runner Steve Prefontaine put it, “wast[ing] the gift.” ‘Positively” deluding ourselves into believing that we’re already actualized forecloses the possibility of living in reality that we can actually improve, where we could find tangible actualization. Finding temporary happiness in positive illusions robs ourselves and robs the world of the good we could experience and contribute on the journey to expressing our fullest potentials.

**TL;DR – Find happiness through whichever method suits you best, but positive thoughts are not sustainable.** [Positive psychology](https://medium.com/build-something-cool/positive-psychology-is-bad-for-you-ee1e4e2f9acd) pretends to be an easy fix to all of your problems. It’s rather simple just to think positive about something, isn’t it? I don’t think it’s a bad thing to find happiness in these thoughts, but there are short-term fixes. Correlation obviously does not equal causation – two things happening at the same time does not mean that it is because of one or the other. Positive thoughts tend to give us a sense of control, especially when mental health troubles can make us feel somewhat out of control. It feels like an instant solution to negative thoughts and helps us to find happiness, but it isn’t always effective nor sustainable.