It was not that long ago that behaviorist psychology dominated the landscape, with man being viewed more or less as animal who is not much more than a product of his environment. Yet the years of intensive therapy for individuals, oriented around what environmental factors made them the way they are, proved largely unsuccessful. One key reason: If individuals are simply a product of their environment, then they largely lack the power to change their environment. They are rendered helpless.
In recent decades, cognitive psychology has largely taken over the mental health landscape. It basically reverses the behaviorist paradigm--we are not products are environment, we shape our environments with our choices and thought habits. This change in perspective is a welcome one, and while incomplete, provides a helpful platform for psychologists and religious leaders to help those in their care, for leaders to care for those under them, and for people to mentally self-medicate.
I would like to introduce to you one psychologist in particular--Martin Seligman (U. of Penn) and his book Learned Optimism. In his introduction, Seligman notes several undeniable trends in American culture. Perhaps the most dominant trend is the rise of a reinforced self-indulgence (my words). People are largely raised to think they are the center of the universe. They are coddled, their misdeeds are excused, and their future desires--no matter how unrealistic--are attainable (these all are, of course, gross generalizations). This has created a self-referential psychology (my terms). My self worth is measured by my perceived successes and failure as it they pertain to my goals. If the delicate balloon that is my self esteem is puncture, my entire world comes crashing down around me.
As Seligman notes, we no longer have the cultural points of validation (my words) or "spiritual furniture" to buffer are sense of self-worth. We only have ourselves. At the same time, "normal" depression (that which is not caused by chemical imbalances and which makes up the vast majority of cases) has skyrocketed. Studies have conclusively shown that modern generations have experience an exponentially greater level of depressive episodes than prior generations.
Seligman argues, quite persuasively, that virtually all cases of normal depression are really "learned helplessness." Those who are depressed have learned through prior circumstances that they are unable to control their environment, and thus do not have home or reasonable chance to affect their environment. Psychological studies have shown, for example, that if two groups of people hear an annoying noise, but only one group is able to turn off the noise, than when those two groups are then place in another scene that requires action to change the environment, the group that had learned helplessness in the first scene often could not and would not perform the basic functions needed.
In real terms, this means that it is likely that if a child learns helplessness at an early age (for example, grows up in an abusive household and is unable to change that negative reality), then he will learn helplessness and will consequently bring a pessimistic "explanatory style" with him into future events. This explanatory style is one's interpretation of life events. If I have learned helplessness and now have a trained pessimistic explanatory style, I will respond to a given negative circumstance by generalizing it ("this always happens"), catastrophizing it ("this is happening everywhere in my life right now"), and personalizing it ("this is who I am"). Thus, the child that was helpless to prevent abuse in his early years, when exposed to another negative circumstance, will employ this destructive mindset, setting himself up for significant depression.
Of course, not all pessimism leads to depression, just as not all chain-smokers will develop lung cancer--it just puts you at severe risk. Virtually all cases of normal depression require a pessimistic explanatory style in order to occur. Again, depression is by and large, simply learned helplessness, caused by one's negative interpretive grid. In addition, this pessimistic explanatory style has undeniable links not only to degraded pyschological health, but lack of professional ambition and success, and reduced medical resilience and lifespan. In other words, the child who has learned helplessness is set up for future failure, not because of the original circumstance(s) itself, but because of the thought pattern developed as a result. Now for the good news...
Unlike previous theories of depression, which made people into victims reliant upon years of probing therapy and countless meds, this modern realization puts power back into people's hands to change. They simply need to starts teaching themselves to interpret their events in a more optimistic (and still realistic) light. When the pessimist encounters a negative circumstance, he should conduct a self-assessment using an "ABC" formula. Identify the point of adversity (only the facts), the beliefs regard that adversity (generalizing, catastrophizing, personalizing), and the consequences of those beliefs (a few bad grades cause me to drop out of school). He must then dispute his beliefs (is this really my lifelong pattern, what I do in every cirumstance, and reflective of who I am?). Following this formula has not only made professional therapy much more successful, but gives people a chance to start working toward change on their own.
This is where Seligman largely leaves off, while I added two more points for my CDR beyond Seligman's formula for improvement and hope. It is one thing to change one's thought patterns, but this change does not get at the core cultural trends that (I believe) are not coincidental in relation to the rise of depression: the rise of a self-referential psychology and the demise of cultural points of reference and spiritual furniture to lean upon for one's identity. I suggested two further components for the change process: extra-personal identity and self-negating mercy.
First, if my self worth hangs upon my perceived successes and failures alone, and I have been taught that the world largely caters to my needs, then when that balloon bursts and reality comes crashing in, I will come crashing down. I think we see that trend in most recent college graduates. I need an extra-personal identity, one that extends beyond myself--one that relies upon that spiritual furniture. Thus, when my invincible plans are punctured and my esteem fracture, I do not fall apart. In a certain sense, these things make me untouchable.
Second, if my purpose in life is largely oriented toward myself, and I stumble in achieving my conceived purpose, then I have failed and my life lacks meaning. But, if I bless those who curse me--if I take someone's insult, and after stopping the spread of its venom in my own mind, praise the other person for what is praiseworthy about them, then I have proactively engaged in a purpose beyond myself. This self-negating mercy pulls me outside the confines of a depression-prone selfishness.
My CDR has asked me to share this brief with our commanding General at a later date. Please pray that my thoughts on this subject would continue to mature. I had a senior chaplain give me some great insights into many of these issues today, based on much of his Masters and Doctoral work. And please pray that this would not be an effort in merely engaging abstractions, but be use in further defining the role of a chaplain and finding ways to care for the individual soldier. I'll add more with regard to the biblical-theological component at a later point.
