Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life

by Martin E.P. Seligman

I am not against self-esteem, but I believe that self-esteem is just a meter that reads out the state of the system. It is not an end in itself.

Worse, it blames the victim. Psychoanalytic theory argues that because of character flaws, the victim brings depression upon himself. He wants to be depressed. He is motivated by the drive for self-punishment to spend endless days in misery, and to do away with himself if he can.

What is crucial is what you think when you fail, using the power of “non-negative thinking.” Changing the destructive things you say to yourself when you experience the setbacks that life deals all of us is the central skill of optimism.

Learning beforehand that responding matters actually prevents learned helplessness.

B.

0

B.

1

A.

1

0

B.

1

B.

B.

1

B.

1

A.

1

A.

1

A.

1

A.

1

0

B.

1

B.

B.

1

B.

1

1

B.

A.

1

1

B.

1

1

A.

taxes.

A.

1

B.

1

A.

1