The key to Feeling Great: kill kindness

Marlene Sharp
4 min readAug 19, 2024
A glimpse at the benevolent kindness killer Dr. David D. Burns.

When kindness is the problem, what in the world could be the solution?!

There might not be an easy answer, but the new Feeling Great app from renowned psychiatrist, author, and podcaster David D. Burns, M.D. tackles the kindness conundrum with flair, comfort, and pleasant distraction.

Quick backstory of Dr. Burns: Since 1980 or thereabouts, Dr. Burns represents the definitive pioneering spirit of non-drug therapy for chronic depression and anxiety. While big pharma continuously hawks the latest in anti-depressant medication, Dr. Burns remains adamant that one is able to change debilitating feelings of worthlessness (and its unsavory offspring, do-nothingness) with thinking tweaks that are au naturale. Burns’ early scientific observations appear in his 1980 layman’s publication FEELING GOOD, which has enjoyed several updates through the decades.

One of Dr. Burns’ most memorable teachings is that kindness is often at the root of neuroses, because an empathetic, well-meaning person is prone to ruminations about what others think of him/her/them and fears upsetting others. According to Dr. Burns and his signature T.E.A.M. CBT approach (testing, empathy…

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Marlene Sharp
Marlene Sharp

Written by Marlene Sharp

Marlene Sharp is a creative and business-savvy entertainment multi-hyphenate who originally hails from New Orleans but is now a (San Fernando) Valley girl.

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