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Anyone who has ever suffered from depression knows how paralyzing the lack of motivation feels during depression. In this video, I explain to you how this phenomenon comes about. The well-known paradigm of learned helplessness, which was introduced by the American psychologist Martin Seligman in 1967, is used to show how depression comes about. At the heart of this paradigm is the assumption that depression comes about through the experience of permanent helplessness and uncontrollability of the social environment. The paradigm of learned helplessness is explained in detail using Martin Seligman's controversial but effective dog experiment and is intended to give all depressed patients an understanding of their lack of motivation. I have treated many depressed patients in my therapeutic work, but they all had one thing in common: from early childhood they were exposed to completely aversive living conditions such as violence, abuse, poverty, mentally ill parents, etc., which gradually led them into depression. The patients mentioned above often experienced these aggressive life events directly from their caregivers and thus perceived their childhood as completely uncontrollable and threatening, which ultimately leads to depression in adult life. Part one of the video explains the theory of the paradigm of learned helplessness. Part two explains the application of the paradigm of learned helplessness to a specific case of a woman who suffered from severe depression. more at: www.psychotherapie-ruland.de