Seligman info

Hi !

Thanks for your comment.

I got that discussion from his book:

"What You Can Change and What You Can't"
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0449909719/qid=1028649717/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-2512266-6608000

I should also provide some context for those unfamiliar with Martin's work. Seligman became well-known some years ago for innovating an animal model of depression ("learned helplessness") and has spent a lot of his career persuing the relationship between optimistic and pessimistic thinking patterns and various aspects of health, happiness, and performance.

His emphasis on optimism (and the potential to learn it, "learned optimism"), sometimes makes his approach sound a lot like some of the popular self-help gurus. However in my opinion he is considerably more sensible and grounded, and most importantly to me, far more committed to separating out wishful thinking from real benefits, than most people who write about self-improvement from the more purely ideological, motivational rah-rah boosterism, or "pop psychology" perspectives. I'm referring to folks like Nathaniel Branden and Tony Robbins for contrast.

"What you can change and what you can't" is a good example of his commonsense approach to change applied in a very general way. While there are things there that I disagree with, there is far more that makes great sense to me. And his model of depth seems to potentially provide a rough way of organizing treatment based on the kinds of things holding symptoms in place.

kind regards,

Todd

Replies:

Re:Seligman info, by Jansen, 09/01/02

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