The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist's Journey from Helplessness to Optimism

One 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.

ISBN-13: 9781610398732

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Publication Date: 04-03-2018

Pages: 448

Product Dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.70(d)

Martin E. P. Seligman, Ph.D., is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, the director of the Positive Psychology Center, and former president of the American Psychological Association. Among his twenty books are Learned Optimism and What You Can Change and What You Can't.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Beginning

Chapter 1 Lightning Bolt 3

Chapter 2 Childhood 9

Chapter 3 Youth (1955-1960) 23

Chapter 4 Miseducation (1960-1964) 39

Chapter 5 Twitmyer's Breakthrough 59

Chapter 6 Learned Helplessness (1964-1967) 69

Chapter 7 A Clinical Psychologist (1967) 81

Part 2 Becoming

Chapter 8 Cornell (1967-1969) 89

Chapter 9 Penn Psychiatry (1970-1972) 109

Chapter 10 Tenured (1972) 119

Chapter 11 Tessitura (1973-1974) 129

Chapter 12 England (1975) 139

Chapter 13 Center for Advanced Study (1978-1979) 151

Chapter 14 Depression 163

Chapter 15 Master Blaster (1980-1983) 175

Part 3 Being

Chapter 16 Mandy (1988-) 195

Chapter 17 Learned Optimism (1989-1993) 207

Chapter 18 APA (1995-1999) 223

Chapter 19 Inventing Positive Psychology (1998-2001) 227

Chapter 20 Good Character (2000-2004) 241

Part 4 Flourishing

Chapter 21 Sixty (2002) 251

Chapter 22 Postitivity and Its Critics (2001-2011) 257

Chapter 23 Postitive Education (1990-) 279

Chapter 24 CIA (2002) 295

Chapter 25 Army (2008-2017) 311

Chapter 26 Physical Health (2007-2017) 329

Part 5 Looking into the Future

Chapter 27 Homo Prospectus (2008-2016) 349

Chapter 28 The Hope Circuit (2016) 369

Chapter 29 Turning the World 381

Acknowledgments 395

Notes 397

Index 415