Helplessness: Learned or Automatic?
Is "learned helplessness" really learned?
Until I read Don’t be a Victim of Your Past Trauma in last month’s Psychology Today magazine I had never connected the dots between learned helplessness and cultic indoctrination. It inspired me to learn more. But I have to say: if I wasn’t so interested in the human side of it, I wouldn’t have made it through reading the research. In the late 1960’s, Martin Seligman - the psychologist who developed the theory of learned helplessness - conducted multiple experiments involving dogs and electric shocks. 😳
Let it be known: I find the mistreatment of animals in the name of science unethical and appalling. Animal advocates: I apologize in advance if this part is triggering. Hang with me if you can. (It gets better after the next paragraph.)
While subjecting dogs to electric shocks, Seligman discovered that dogs who had received inescapable, repeated shocks remained passive in subsequent ‘treatments’—even when escape or avoidance was possible. Dogs that had not received those torturous unavoidable shocks immediately got the hell out of dodge - with their healthy instinct intact. 🐕 Notably: the repetition of inescapable shocks ‘taught’ the dogs that they were helpless - even when they could have left the adversity zone.
Sound familiar to any of you who have gotten out of shocking environments of a different kind?
Although unethical and inhumane, Seligman’s research led the way for more that illuminates not only how humans behave after being subjected to inescapable adversity, but more importantly: how to overcome helplessness.
In cultic groups, fear is weaponized as a means of instilling compliance and keeping members in line. Like the dogs in Seligman’s experiments, social and emotional ‘shocks’ teach members to stay put. 🛑 Ironically, we now know that helplessness is actually an automatic response to adversity - NOT learned. 💫
The mechanism of learned helplessness is now very well-charted biologically, and the original theory got it backward. Passivity in response to shock is not learned. It is the default, unlearned response to prolonged aversive events and it is mediated by the serotonergic activity of the dorsal raphe nucleus, which in turn inhibits escape.*
So. There’s a biological reason that escape is not automatic when people and dogs are subjected to cruelty! But we can't stop there.
In the Don’t Be a Victim article, the author Dr Kaufman states: Fear is automatically learned, but fear must be actively unlearned. This unlearning occurs primarily in the Prefrontal Cortex - the largest part of the human brain 🧠 where ‘higher’ cognition takes place. By actively confronting the helplessness we can reframe it into hope, acceptance, and action.
The prefrontal cortex is also where language is processed - which makes me wonder... Is the process of unlearning automatic, fear induced, helpless behaviors is also supported through spoken and written word.❓❓It makes sense to me that this would be the case because we know from Dr Dan Siegel’s work how creating coherent narratives helps people to integrate confusing and traumatic experiences. Right?!? 🧐
Let me know if this makes sense to you. Just hit reply.
Gerette
Would you like to attend a Writing to Reckon class to exercise your prefrontal cortex? There are two spots in this Friday's class. If it's your first time, you can attend for FREE. Use the coupon code CLASSPASS for one free class. REGISTER
If you want more - check out this podcast with Kaufman and Seligman
