The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to OptimismOne of the most influential living psychologists looks at the history of his life and discipline, and paints a much brighter future for everyone. When Martin E. P. Seligman first encountered psychology in the 1960s, the field was devoted to eliminating misery: it was the science of how past trauma creates present symptoms. Today, thanks in large part to Seligman's Positive Psychology movement, it is ever more focused not on what cripples life, but on what makes life worth living -- with profound consequences for our mental health. In this wise and eloquent memoir, spanning the most transformative years in the history of modern psychology, Seligman recounts how he learned to study optimism -- including a life-changing conversation with his five-year-old daughter. He tells the human stories behind some of his major findings, like CAVE, an analytical tool that predicts election outcomes (with shocking accuracy) based on the language used in campaign speeches, the international spread of Positive Education, the launch of the US Army's huge resilience program, and the canonical studies that birthed the theory of learned helplessness -- which he now reveals was incorrect. And he writes at length for the first time about his own battles with depression at a young age. In The Hope Circuit, Seligman makes a compelling and deeply personal case for the importance of virtues like hope, gratitude, and wisdom for our mental health. You will walk away from this book not just educated but deeply enriched. |
Contents
Chapter Three Youth 19551960 | |
Chapter Four Miseducation 19601964 | |
Chapter Five Twitmyers Breakthrough | |
Chapter Six Learned Helplessness 19641967 | |
Chapter Seven A Clinical Psychologist 1967 | |
Chapter Eight Cornell 19671969 | |
Chapter Seventeen Learned Optimism 19891993 | |
Chapter Eighteen APA 19951999 | |
Chapter Twenty Good Character 20002004 | |
Chapter TwentyOne Sixty 2002 | |
Chapter TwentyTwo Positivity and Its Critics 20012011 | |
Chapter TwentyThree Positive Education 1990 | |
Chapter TwentyFour CIA 2002 | |
Chapter TwentyFive Army 20082017 | |
Chapter Nine Penn Psychiatry 19701972 | |
Chapter Ten Tenured 1972 | |
Chapter Eleven Tessitura 19731974 | |
Chapter Twelve England 1975 | |
Chapter Thirteen Center for Advanced Study 19781979 | |
Chapter Fourteen Depression | |
Chapter Fifteen Master Blaster 19801983 | |
Chapter Sixteen Mandy 1988 | |
Chapter TwentySix Physical Health 20072017 | |
Chapter TwentySeven Homo Prospectus 20082016 | |
Chapter TwentyEight The Hope Circuit 2016 | |
Chapter TwentyNine Turning the World | |
Acknowledgments | |
Notes | |
Other editions - View all
The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to Optimism Martin Seligman No preview available - 2018 |
The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to Optimism Martin Seligman No preview available - 2018 |
The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to Optimism Martin E. P. Seligman No preview available - 2018 |
Common terms and phrases
academic Adrian Alan Kors Albany Albany Academy American Psychological American Psychological Association animals asked bad events became behavior better chapter Chris Chris Peterson clinical psychology cognitive cognitive therapy creativity depression Dick Dick Solomon disorders dogs Ed Diener escape experience experimental faculty future Geelong Grammar School graduate student happiness Harvard Hope Circuit human inescapable shock interrogation Irene Journal Kerry kids laboratory later learned helplessness lives looked Mandy Martin Seligman Marty mental health mental illness never Nikki optimism patients Pavlovian conditioning Penn percent person pessimism pessimistic phobia Photo courtesy positive education positive psychology predicted president Princeton problems professor psychiatry psychology department psychotherapy rats resilience training scientific scientists shuttle box social Steve teachers teaching tell tessitura theory therapist therapy thought told tone took undergraduate University well-being words York