Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:19:49 -0800
From: target@batstar.net
To: psysr-disc@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [psysr-disc] Fhk on Ft. Hood
Fhk:
This
Huffington Post article is very helpful.One consideration I have, however, is about "positive psychology." I'd agree that Seligman's social critique is superficial .. he's not a community organizer by training or experience .. and that "positive psychology" TENDS to be confused with the "power of positive thinking."
The kind of "creative maladjustment" that
Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated is also contrary to "learned helplessness," but it involves more of the community organizing aspect of "being positively ('creatively') maladjusted."I think we need to look at the ramifications here more. Your "respond to their PTSD by telling them to be resilient and turn their trauma into a Mozart concerto" is a caricature of what is actually advocated, the so-called "hero" approach to taking on the "psychology of terrorism." That I'd say is more invidious than than these flabby adaptations of Seligman and should be the subject of further critique.
Andrew Phelps
Quoting Fhk:
Thank you for doing this, Pqr.
Fhk
Pqr writes: