Learned Optimism - Is Depression Learned?
This week, we’ll go back to looking at the book “Learned Optimism’ by Martin Seligman
Seligman looks at Depression. At the time, depression was seen as either a biological issue or anger turned upon the self. The biological construct argued that biology was a disease of the body and naturally would be treated using drugs.
Freud’s notion was that depression was spawned from unresolved childhood issues and was anger turned toward the self. This would be treated by looking at childhood and resolving the unresolved issues.
Seligman, on the other hand, saw depression as a learned condition. He proposed that depression was due to the way individuals thought and how they had learned to think. They had learned to be helpless. They had learned that they didn’t have control over their outcomes and this generated depression.
Those would had learned to be helpless explained bad events as being personal (It’s all my fault), permanent (It’s not going to change) and pervasive (It applies to all aspects of life not just this situation). So, Seligman proposed that people who explained bad events in this way would become depressed.
If this was the case, depression could be treated by changing or relearning this thought patterns. By doing this, and increasing optimistic ways of explaining events, relapses into depression could also be prevented.
This is the premise of the book, learning new ways of explaining events that happen to us in life.
We’ll continue on this journey next week and look at ways we can all do this.
If you are feeling depressed, please see your healthcare professional and seek help.
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