Learned Helplessness

Marty Seligman is the founder of Positive Psychology which has transformed counseling from a disease model of what is wrong with you to a model of what is positive about you to build transformation in an individual’s mental health. Marty has at least 5 Lifetime Achievement Awards in psychology and has joined the pantheon of such as Freud and Jung.  I met my future mentor and friend through his wife who attended a parent’s night where faculty such as I gave overviews of what we are teaching. I was doing a unit on Positive Psychology where one of his daughters was in the class. Marty’s wife, Mandy, saw me after the presentation and said, “You and your wife, must come to dinner.” A few days later we did and met as well with the Heads of Education of England and Australia.

The daughter who I was teaching started Positive Psychology when she called her father a grouch while they were working together in the family garden. Marty took it to heart and from that garden moment on chose to see and be something positive. He devoted a year’s sabbatical to develop the theory, and it has dominated the field of psychology ever since. He became a mentor and friend. My oldest son had an interest in flourishing behavior so the three of us had lunch together. I watched them both soar in dialogue about that behavior!

People forget that Marty began his career by studying depression. He found a key ingredient in what creates non biologically based depression or situational depression.  It is learned helplessness! He did an experiment with dogs. Between the area where the dogs were situated and food on the other side of a grid, he placed an electric grid that they had to walk over to get to the food. They received a shock when they attempted to cross it to the point that they wouldn’t cross the shocked grid even when they were very hungry. It got to a point that they could be very hungry and even when there was no shock, they still would not cross the grid. What became obvious is that they refused no matter what the circumstance to try to get over the grid. They huddled in corner and would not cross it.

Likewise, he proved that depressed people behave the same way because they felt as though they didn’t have any control over their environment, and thus they would never act EVEN WHEN OPPORTUNITIES FOR ESCAPE WERE AVAILABLE. Situational depression is also related to expectations that are not met leading to anger that is not expressed as well as double bind questions.

Sadie the Wonder Dog supports the concept of learned helplessness in a different way. She is a lab with lots of energy so we installed an electric fence around our property so she could roam freely. I told the fence people that it would never work for our dog. She goes crazy for two things, food and greeting people. I first used the shock collar by holding onto it myself to make sure it would not hurt her.  We trained her to the electric fence, and it resulted in her refusal to go beyond it. You could put a steak on the other side of that electric fence, and she would not touch it. Likewise, I have three little girls as neighbors who come to visit us. Although underground and invisible, they know exactly where the fence is. She runs out to greet them. They just wait until she calms down on their side of the fence, and they can pass onto our property with no hassle.

Learned helplessness plays a key role in social issues as well. It is a dominant feeling in our nation now. Learned helplessness thrives particularly in chaos and disorder. If there was a social challenge for the emotional life of our nation, it would be learned helplessness. Instead of an electric grid, we have an ongoing flurry of Trump and his administration breaking law after law. Trump’s lies after lies as well as bizarre actions including such things as pardoning the January 6 rioters and recently telling Bondi to go after his enemies has created the grid for us to pass over.

He showed us who he is before the election and continues to do so today in extreme ways. He has masterfully hired his supporters in all aspects of our government, and they will do anything he requires. Jimmy Kimmel’s firing was like the canary in the coal mine who is there as a test when the miners don’t have oxygen to breathe. For many it was the embodiment of suppression of media to say or joke about anything that is not praising Trump. He seems to run havoc at will. He is certainly Teflon Don. The Democrats are in an identity crisis. Hell is described in the ethical system of existentialism as the inability to see the possibility of change. The antidote requires actions referred to as disruptive change that leads to freedom.