How the Creators of Learned Helplessness Theory Refuted It

Here’s the link to the article in which the authors critique their own theory.

Two American psychologists, Martin Seligman and Steven Maier, have refuted their own theory of learned helplessness — the idea that we acquire a sense of helplessness over the course of our lives through learning. Maier began to have doubts because no one could find drugs that disrupt the neural connections in the brain responsible for breaking down learned helplessness. Maier moved into neurophysiology and, using MRI, studied what becomes activated in the brain’s cortex during states of learned helplessness.

It turned out that neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus are active by default — and that it is precisely they who block our activity in response to negative situations. New skills developed in the prefrontal cortex to help us cope with a situation, however, quiet those dorsal raphe neurons. It follows that there is nothing to “break down”. Instead, what’s needed is to form new coping skills that allow us to avoid or handle the negative situation. Maier presented these results to Seligman, who re-examined his theory in light of these findings, and together they published a refutation of the original theory .

I really wanted to start this post with: “Did you know??…” So, learned helplessness doesn’t exist. Or rather, it’s not “learned,” because the baseline response is hardwired into us biologically. What can be learned is “helpfulness” — meaning the ability to help yourself, with a sense of control over your own actions in a negative situation where no sense of control seems to exist. You have to genuinely force yourself to try differently, and in doing so, develop new skills. Those new skills, in turn, will suppress the overactive neurons in the dorsal raphe area. In other words, the brain goes: “Wait, this was an option?!” And then the next time a similar situation arises, it’s no longer experienced as a dead end. If it worked last time, it can work again.

My deepest respect to Seligman — not every scientist is capable of revisiting their own decade-old theory, one into which so much effort and time had been poured.

By the way, on the subject of “acting differently”, in both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), the question comes up regularly: “How would you like to do things differently?” “How could you begin to act differently in this situation?” In my view, these approaches, along with any approach where a therapist regularly leans on questions like these, help develop and strengthen self-support skills — which is crucial for feeling like the author of your own life.