Hope – learned helplessness
Being the spiritually enlightened person that I work so hard to become, when I had two situations yesterday which led me to feeling helpless I became very frustrated. Neither situation was life threatening or even that important in terms of my overall life experience. Yet, I noticed myself getting tense, louder than usual and mumbling rather than speaking clearly. Both situations were eventually resolved. I then was frustrated at myself for getting frustrated. Even though I “knew” that I would be fine no matter what the outcome of each of these situations I, nevertheless, felt temporarily helpless which is not a good feeling for someone who is very spoiled in the sense that I am frequently able to set and attain goals.
My experience of being very temporarily helpless was not the same as those who come to believe that they are helpless and, thus, remain stuck in very abusive and/or situations which are emotionally and/or physically life threatening. I first heard the term “learned helplessness” when I was working with victims of domestic violence. For many years, in additions to seeing such individuals in my counseling practice, I was a member of a Domestic Violence Prevention Committee which helped to advise and oversee the services which were needed if victims of domestic violence were going to reclaim a life for themselves and often for their children.
I later discovered that Martin Seiligman and his colleagues at Cornell had done a lot of experiments and formulated theories about learned helplessness at Cornell University. (Seiligman & Maier, 1967, psychology.wikia.com)
Basically learned helplessness is a condition which occurs as a result of being in a situation in which one is treated and often overtly told that he or she is helpless and unable to take care of themselves and/or their children or others that they love. In domestically violent situations one is often physically and emotionally abused, cut off from friends and not allowed access to money, transportation or other means of survival. Eventually the person who is being treated this way comes to believe that they are helpless, dumb, and generally dependent on their abuser.
This is essentially the same process which scholars such as James Cone described in his theories about the psychology of oppression. Eventually one is so emotionally dependent on “the master” that the slave quits trying to escape and is only able to express gratitude to the owner/person who is oppressing them.
Two news items stimulated my thinking about these issues this morning. One was a brief report on placebos which are being increasingly understood to work because of their ability help the brain remember when one was well and then to begin sending healing messages to the rest of the body. In short, if we think that we are getting something to help us heal our brain will kick into the healing mode. It turns out that the same process is true with regards to many other beliefs. If, for example, one thinks one is using a golf club which is superior, one’s golf game is likely to improve.
The other item which caught my interest was a May 9th article in the Washington Post by Emily Badger (Wornkblog) entitled “White and Black Chicago are Living in Two Totally Different Cultures” which discussed an opinion poll conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The pollsters asked questions of Chicago residents about city services, availability of places to purchase fresh produce, place to raise children, quality of schools, public parks and recreations, potential gang membership of their children, potential for children going to jail, and other questions. They divided the respondents into blacks, whites, and Hispanics. What immediately stood out to me was the disparity between the response of Hispanics and Blacks. On almost all questions, whites were most likely to have a positive answer. Responses by blacks were the most hopeless. On most questions Hispanics were closer to the responses of the whites than to that of the blacks.
Why is this? Both blacks and Hispanics are people of color. Both face some level of discrimination. Both groups, on the whole, are likely to have an overall poverty rate much higher than whites. (google poverty rates in US by race on kff.org)
I want to propose that the difference is that Hispanics from South American, Mexico and Cuba have a rich background of strong family support and strong cultural history. Although this is true for many black families, on the whole the history of the treatment of blacks over a long period in this country has been one of systematic denying the means and the consequent hope that they could achieve. It is also very important that we realize, as with those living in domestically violence situations, but over several generations, the cycle itself breeds hopelessness. The more one is denied equal emotional, educational, nutritional, and community support the more likely one is to lose belief in oneself. This leads to hopelessness and learned helplessness. Obviously this is not true in all black families just as it is not true that all white families are able to raise their children in an environment which breeds hope.
Hope breeds hope just as a placebo triggers the part of the brain which believes/knows that it can heal.
Shows on television such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers have had an enormous impact on the lives of many children, but it is obviously not enough. We must do more to insure that all families have access to the resources to live in safe homes and neighborhoods. We must do more to insure that all families have access to healthy food, libraries, and other essentials.
All of us we must do more to counter the lies that children and adults internalize - the lies which steal hope in one’s ability to believe in oneself and one’s talents and abilities.
Written May 11, 2016
Being the spiritually enlightened person that I work so hard to become, when I had two situations yesterday which led me to feeling helpless I became very frustrated. Neither situation was life threatening or even that important in terms of my overall life experience. Yet, I noticed myself getting tense, louder than usual and mumbling rather than speaking clearly. Both situations were eventually resolved. I then was frustrated at myself for getting frustrated. Even though I “knew” that I would be fine no matter what the outcome of each of these situations I, nevertheless, felt temporarily helpless which is not a good feeling for someone who is very spoiled in the sense that I am frequently able to set and attain goals.
My experience of being very temporarily helpless was not the same as those who come to believe that they are helpless and, thus, remain stuck in very abusive and/or situations which are emotionally and/or physically life threatening. I first heard the term “learned helplessness” when I was working with victims of domestic violence. For many years, in additions to seeing such individuals in my counseling practice, I was a member of a Domestic Violence Prevention Committee which helped to advise and oversee the services which were needed if victims of domestic violence were going to reclaim a life for themselves and often for their children.
I later discovered that Martin Seiligman and his colleagues at Cornell had done a lot of experiments and formulated theories about learned helplessness at Cornell University. (Seiligman & Maier, 1967, psychology.wikia.com)
Basically learned helplessness is a condition which occurs as a result of being in a situation in which one is treated and often overtly told that he or she is helpless and unable to take care of themselves and/or their children or others that they love. In domestically violent situations one is often physically and emotionally abused, cut off from friends and not allowed access to money, transportation or other means of survival. Eventually the person who is being treated this way comes to believe that they are helpless, dumb, and generally dependent on their abuser.
This is essentially the same process which scholars such as James Cone described in his theories about the psychology of oppression. Eventually one is so emotionally dependent on “the master” that the slave quits trying to escape and is only able to express gratitude to the owner/person who is oppressing them.
Two news items stimulated my thinking about these issues this morning. One was a brief report on placebos which are being increasingly understood to work because of their ability help the brain remember when one was well and then to begin sending healing messages to the rest of the body. In short, if we think that we are getting something to help us heal our brain will kick into the healing mode. It turns out that the same process is true with regards to many other beliefs. If, for example, one thinks one is using a golf club which is superior, one’s golf game is likely to improve.
The other item which caught my interest was a May 9th article in the Washington Post by Emily Badger (Wornkblog) entitled “White and Black Chicago are Living in Two Totally Different Cultures” which discussed an opinion poll conducted by The New York Times and the Kaiser Family Foundation. The pollsters asked questions of Chicago residents about city services, availability of places to purchase fresh produce, place to raise children, quality of schools, public parks and recreations, potential gang membership of their children, potential for children going to jail, and other questions. They divided the respondents into blacks, whites, and Hispanics. What immediately stood out to me was the disparity between the response of Hispanics and Blacks. On almost all questions, whites were most likely to have a positive answer. Responses by blacks were the most hopeless. On most questions Hispanics were closer to the responses of the whites than to that of the blacks.
Why is this? Both blacks and Hispanics are people of color. Both face some level of discrimination. Both groups, on the whole, are likely to have an overall poverty rate much higher than whites. (google poverty rates in US by race on kff.org)
I want to propose that the difference is that Hispanics from South American, Mexico and Cuba have a rich background of strong family support and strong cultural history. Although this is true for many black families, on the whole the history of the treatment of blacks over a long period in this country has been one of systematic denying the means and the consequent hope that they could achieve. It is also very important that we realize, as with those living in domestically violence situations, but over several generations, the cycle itself breeds hopelessness. The more one is denied equal emotional, educational, nutritional, and community support the more likely one is to lose belief in oneself. This leads to hopelessness and learned helplessness. Obviously this is not true in all black families just as it is not true that all white families are able to raise their children in an environment which breeds hope.
Hope breeds hope just as a placebo triggers the part of the brain which believes/knows that it can heal.
Shows on television such as Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers have had an enormous impact on the lives of many children, but it is obviously not enough. We must do more to insure that all families have access to the resources to live in safe homes and neighborhoods. We must do more to insure that all families have access to healthy food, libraries, and other essentials.
All of us we must do more to counter the lies that children and adults internalize - the lies which steal hope in one’s ability to believe in oneself and one’s talents and abilities.
Written May 11, 2016
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