1장
The Book That Changed How We View Human Potential
In a world obsessed with self-improvement, Martin Seligman's "What You Can Change and What You Can't" arrived like a splash of cold water on our collective enthusiasm. When Oprah Winfrey triumphantly wheeled out a wagon of fat representing her 67-pound weight loss in 1988, only to regain it all within years, she unwittingly demonstrated Seligman's central thesis: some aspects of ourselves resist change despite our best efforts. This groundbreaking work became a cornerstone text in psychology, challenging both the American belief that anything is possible with enough effort and the biological determinism that claims we're prisoners of our genes. Remarkably, when Seligman revisited his findings thirteen years after publication, he found most conclusions unchanged, suggesting he had uncovered fundamental truths about human nature. The book's enduring influence can be seen everywhere from clinical psychology protocols to popular self-help approaches that now acknowledge biological constraints rather than promising unlimited transformation.
2장
The Battle Between Self-Improvement and Biological Determinism
Two powerful worldviews collide in modern culture. The first-self-improvement-insists we can change anything about ourselves through effort, whether through dieting, meditation, or therapy. The second-biological determinism-argues our genes and brain chemistry make many changes impossible. Both perspectives shape our approach to personal growth, but both are often wrong.
Consider Trudy, who repeatedly fails at weight loss despite trying multiple programs, versus Clay, who overcomes panic attacks with cognitive therapy after psychoanalysis and medication failed. The truth lies between these extremes-some aspects of ourselves change easily, others with extreme difficulty, and some not at all.
These competing positions are driven by ideology rather than evidence. Behaviorists, psychoanalysts, and self-help gurus claim everything can change. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies, biologists, and conservatives counter that we're prisoners of our biology. Both represent ideologically-driven falsehoods.
Having studied "plasticity" for thirty years, Seligman discovered that evolution shapes what we can and cannot change. His theory of "Preparedness" explains why certain changes come easily while others remain nearly impossible. This understanding offers an evidence-based guide to what's changeable, free from political biases of either right or left, relying on rigorous outcome studies rather than testimonials or case histories.
This approach represents a fundamental shift in how we understand human potential. For most of Western history, people believed human character was fixed and unalterable. The transformation from believing in unchangeability to embracing human plasticity represents one of the most profound revolutions in modern thought, emerging through political liberty, scientific advancement, and the concept of free will.
The biblical tradition once portrayed human agency as virtually nonexistent-God acted while humans merely followed divine commands. This dogma of human implasticity dominated Western civilization for two millennia, reinforced by the social stagnation of the Middle Ages. Only with the emergence of political liberty, scientific advancement, and theological debates over free will did cracks begin to appear in this worldview.
3장
The Rise of the Maximal Self
The dogma that humans couldn't change themselves began cracking with three major developments: political liberty, scientific advancement, and the concept of free will. Science, as Francis Bacon demonstrated, could change things-Newton unlocked motion's secrets, leading to explosions of knowledge in medicine and other fields. The final crack appeared through theological debate over free will.
Pico della Mirandola defied human implasticity in his "Oration: On the Dignity of Man," arguing God gave humans free will to shape their own nature. Though condemned by the pope, these ideas spread. The Protestant Reformation followed, with battles between Calvin's predestination doctrine and Arminius's defense of free will. John Wesley's popular Methodist sermons finally brought free will into popular consciousness.
By the early nineteenth century, these three fissures-political liberty, scientific advancement, and free will-had overthrown the two-thousand-year dogma of human implasticity. Nineteenth-century America provided perfect soil for the new dogma of human plasticity. Rugged individualism replaced European implasticity, nourished by democracy, frontier opportunity, immigration, universal schooling, women's suffrage, religious liberalism, and entrepreneurial ideals.
The modern economy thrives on individual choice and personal control. Where once refrigerators came only in white, now machine intelligence allows endless product variations. Markets have been created by glorifying individual choice, with advertising promoting "the deciding, choosing, pleasure-preoccupied self." Post-WWII American affluence has made the self into big business, even spawning a magazine called "Self."
The self has evolved historically-from the minimal medieval self where everyone looked alike in paintings, to the expanded Renaissance self, to today's Maximal Self. This modern self is preoccupied with gratifications, feelings, and choices-unlike the Minimal Self of the Bible and Luther that focused on duty rather than feelings. The dogma of human plasticity tends to fulfill itself: when a society exalts the self, self-improvement becomes possible because people believe they can change.
4장
The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry
Despite the popularity of self-improvement and psychotherapy, biological psychiatry presents a competing vision with three principles: mental illness is physical illness, emotions are determined by brain chemistry, and personality is determined by genes. This biomedical approach suggests change comes only through physical interventions: curing underlying physical illness, using drugs for emotions, and accepting fixed personality traits.
The worst epidemic of madness in history began after Columbus discovered the New World. General paresis progressed from weakness to eccentricity to delusions and finally paralysis and death. Richard von Krafft-Ebing daringly proved it was caused by syphilis by injecting nine paretics with material from syphilitic sores-when none developed new sores, he proved they already had syphilis. This groundbreaking work established the first principle of biological psychiatry: mental illness is bodily illness.
In 1952, psychiatric hospitals were filled beyond capacity with psychotic patients. Then Jean Delay announced a breakthrough-chlorpromazine, an antihistamine that remarkably calmed psychotic patients and dissolved their delusions. This drug revolution-the "third revolution" in psychiatry-emptied psychiatric back wards and established the premise that disordered emotions reflect disordered brain chemistry.
The drug approach spread rapidly: it aligned with the disease model, elevated psychiatry's scientific status, was quick and profitable, and most importantly, worked. Antipsychotics helped about 60 percent of patients improve. Soon, drugs were developed for depression and anxiety, transforming the Age of Anxiety into the Age of Tranquilizers.
While psychiatric drugs effectively alter emotions, they have significant downsides. Rather than targeting specific diseases, drugs often work as "foreign invaders" that mobilize the body's defenses. Antipsychotics, despite working for 60% of patients, rarely produce complete recovery. The side effects are severe: cardiac arrhythmia, low blood pressure, restlessness, facial immobility, tremors, and irreversible tardive dyskinesia that affects up to one-third of patients.
Biological psychiatry's controversial principle that personality is genetic challenges modern sensibilities. Twin studies provide the strongest evidence for genetic influence: identical twins reared apart show remarkable similarities in traits ranging from IQ and job satisfaction to religiosity and television viewing habits. However, heritability for most traits is around .50, meaning only half of personality is genetically fixed-the other half remains changeable through therapy and self-improvement.
5장
The Anxiety Spectrum: From Everyday Worry to Panic
We all experience dysphoria-anxiety, depression, and anger-daily, even when life is going well. This "conservation of dysphoria" may have evolutionary origins: during the Pleistocene epoch's harsh climate, those with anxious, brooding temperaments survived by anticipating disasters, while their carefree counterparts perished.
Anxiety functions like a mental tongue, constantly probing for imperfections and potential problems. While anxiety can be useful as an early warning system, it becomes problematic when it's irrational, paralyzing, or excessively intense. Self-assessment can help determine if your anxiety level warrants intervention, with progressive relaxation and meditation being two effective techniques for reducing everyday anxiety.
Relaxation techniques can effectively counter anxiety by engaging a competing response system. Regular meditation, such as Transcendental Meditation practiced twenty minutes twice daily, blocks anxiety-producing thoughts while relaxation targets the physical symptoms. Both techniques can produce lasting relief when practiced consistently.
Minor tranquilizers and alcohol provide quick fixes but with significant drawbacks. They cause cognitive impairment, lose effectiveness over time, and risk addiction. For occasional, acute anxiety, small amounts may help, but relaxation and meditation are far safer and more effective long-term solutions.
Panic disorder affects roughly 5% of American adults and involves sudden, terrifying attacks featuring chest pains, sweating, dizziness, and overwhelming dread. Four questions determine whether panic is primarily biological: Can it be induced biologically? (Yes, sodium lactate infusions trigger attacks in 60-90% of panic patients but rarely in others.) Is it genetically heritable? (If one identical twin has panic, 31% of co-twins also have it, versus 0% for fraternal twins.) Are specific brain functions involved? (PET scans show abnormal blood flow in panic patients' brains.) Do drugs relieve it? (Both tricyclic antidepressants and Xanax effectively reduce attacks.)
These biological findings led many to view panic as purely a physical illness requiring medication. However, David Clark of Oxford proposed a revolutionary alternative: panic might be the catastrophic misinterpretation of normal bodily sensations. When someone notices their racing heart, they misinterpret it as a heart attack, which increases anxiety and physical symptoms, creating a vicious cycle culminating in panic.
Clark developed a novel cognitive therapy based on this theory. Patients learn that panic results from misinterpreting normal anxiety symptoms as catastrophic events. They're taught to reinterpret symptoms realistically and practice with controlled exposure to experience the sensations without panic. This approach has proven remarkably effective, with 90-100% of patients panic-free after treatment and minimal recurrence after one year-unprecedented success rates compared to drug treatments, which often lead to relapse when discontinued.
6장
Evolutionary Preparedness: Why Some Fears Persist
Before discussing phobias, we must understand how evolution affects what we can change about ourselves. Some resistant traits persist because they were adaptive for our ancestors-phobias exemplify this evolutionary legacy in our emotional lives.
After becoming violently ill hours after eating sauce bearnaise in 1966, Seligman developed a powerful aversion to it. This personal experience violated several established laws of conditioning: First, the aversion was highly selective-only the sauce became nauseating, not the beef, plates, or even his wife who was present. Second, traditional conditioning requires immediate pairing (within seconds), but his illness occurred hours after tasting the sauce. Third, his aversion formed after just one incident, while normal conditioning typically requires multiple pairings.
John Garcia's groundbreaking experiments with rats explained these anomalies. When rats drank saccharin water accompanied by light and noise before receiving radiation that made them sick, they developed aversions only to the taste, completely ignoring the light and noise. This selective learning defied conventional understanding-taste became associated only with illness, while visual/auditory stimuli became associated only with pain.
The message from Garcia is that evolution has shaped our learning capacity. For millions of years, our ancestors needed to avoid toxic foods to survive. Those who quickly learned to avoid distinctive tastes associated with sickness passed on their genes. We're evolutionarily prepared to learn certain associations rapidly-in one trial and across long delays-at levels deeper than rationality.
A phobia is an intense fear disproportionate to the actual danger posed by its object. About 10 percent of adults suffer from milder forms, while under 1 percent experience extreme phobias that leave them housebound. Approximately half of phobias begin with childhood trauma, as illustrated by Susan's case. At age four, she witnessed her family cat covered in blood, gnawing on a partly eaten rabbit. Her hysterical reaction developed into a lifelong cat phobia that intensified until, at thirty-one, she became housebound.
Behavior therapy has proven highly effective, based on the theory that phobias represent instances of Pavlovian conditioning where a neutral object becomes associated with trauma. Two extinction-based approaches work particularly well: systematic desensitization (gradually facing feared situations while relaxed) and flooding (extended exposure to the feared situation). These behavioral approaches achieve success rates of at least 70 percent, typically within ten sessions.
Phobias aren't ordinary Pavlovian conditioning but rather "prepared conditioning" with evolutionary roots. They're highly selective-focusing on objects dangerous to our ancestors (snakes, spiders, heights) rather than modern threats like car doors or guns. Students conditioned to fear spiders after just one pairing with shock, while house pictures required many pairings. Unlike rational Pavlovian conditioning, phobias persist despite knowledge of their irrationality. These primordial fears reveal how parts of our psychological makeup resist change because they're rooted in our evolutionary heritage.
7장
When Thoughts Become Tormentors: OCD and Depression
Everyone has a "jingle channel" running slightly below consciousness-carrying ditties, phrases that often rhyme, or recurring images. The content shifts slowly on its own but can jump with external prompts. Some people's channels are louder than others, and once you tune in, you discover it has a life of its own and resists voluntary change.
The jingle channel carries much of our emotional life, often unpleasantly. For depressed people, it broadcasts ruminations about loss and hopelessness. Others experience a nightmare channel featuring Stephen King-like productions of ferocious animals or humiliation scenes. For those with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the channel broadcasts alien, repugnant thoughts about contamination, danger-checking, and doubt, paired with ritual compulsions performed to neutralize these intrusive thoughts.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder manifests when alien, repugnant thoughts intrude on the mind, accompanied by ritual acts performed to neutralize them. Common obsessions include dirt contamination, danger-checking, and doubt, leading to compulsions like excessive handwashing or repeated checking of locks. Howard Hughes exemplifies extreme OCD-his wealth allowed him to employ staff to execute elaborate cleaning rituals, including detailed protocols for opening canned fruit.
Biological psychiatrists view OCD as a brain disease, citing several lines of evidence. OCD occasionally develops after brain trauma, sometimes accompanies epilepsy, and shows familial patterns with 30% of adolescent OCD patients having affected relatives. Brain scans reveal heightened activity in areas related to filtering irrelevant information, which diminishes with successful treatment. Finally, the effectiveness of serotonin-reuptake inhibitors like Anafranil supports the biological theory, though the drug helps only about half of patients and rarely produces complete cures.
Behavior therapists propose that OCD develops when people struggle to dismiss disturbing thoughts, creating a vicious cycle where anxiety makes thought suppression increasingly difficult. This understanding leads to exposure and response prevention therapy-exposing patients to feared situations while preventing ritual performance. Between half and two-thirds of patients improve markedly with this approach, though most still experience lingering thoughts at a reduced volume.
We live in an age of depression-now ten times more widespread than in our grandparents' time, striking people a decade younger, and reaching even into childhood. While Freud's era was dominated by anxiety amid crumbling old-world orders, our age is characterized by helplessness and struggles for power. Depression has become the emotional signature of our times, the "common cold" of mental illness.
Depression has reached epidemic proportions in modern times. Two major government studies from the 1970s revealed startling findings: people born in the second half of the 20th century were ten times more likely to suffer depression than those born in the first half. Not only has severe depression become more common, it strikes earlier in life. This represents unprecedented psychological misery amid unprecedented national prosperity.
Depression strikes women twice as often as men across studies throughout the twentieth century. This disparity persists regardless of economic circumstances or employment status. Three plausible explanations emerge: First, learned helplessness-women receive more training in passivity and dependence throughout life. Second, rumination-women tend to analyze problems and dwell on negative thoughts while men distract themselves through action. Third, pursuit of thinness-cultures with thin ideals show more depression in women, as the biologically impossible standard creates constant failure or starvation-induced depression.
Four proven treatments exist for depression: two biological (drugs and electroconvulsive shock) and two psychological (cognitive therapy and interpersonal therapy). All work moderately well, with similar effectiveness rates around 65-75%. Antidepressant medications take 10-21 days to work but have side effects and don't prevent relapse once discontinued. Cognitive therapy teaches patients to recognize automatic negative thoughts, dispute them with contrary evidence, and question depression-causing assumptions. It takes about a month to work but uniquely reduces future risk by teaching lasting skills.
8장
Anger, Trauma, and the Challenge of Change
Anger often erupts in everyday conflicts like "dishwasher fights" where minor issues trigger deeper resentments, leading to volcanic exchanges where nothing gets resolved. Anger has evolutionary roots in our ancestors' survival mechanisms. It serves primarily to defend territory against perceived trespass and aims for justice, seeking to right wrongs and prevent further trespasses.
Many resist suppressing anger, believing expression is honest and suppression unhealthy. However, this "ventilationist" view contradicts evidence about health impacts. Overt hostility, not suppression, appears to be the real culprit in heart disease. Expressing anger can raise blood pressure and accelerate heart wear. The Freudian notion that depression is anger turned inward lacks evidence-in fact, encouraging depressed people to express anger often worsens their condition.
Perhaps most damaging is anger's effect on children. Our five-year study of 400 children showed that those whose parents fight frequently (20%) or divorce (15%) develop significant, persistent depression compared to children from peaceful homes. These children become unbridled pessimists, viewing bad events as permanent and pervasive, and often blaming themselves. Their childhood optimism transforms into adult-like depression that persists even after parental conflicts subside.
Post-traumatic stress disorder represents the intrusion of ancient human tragedy into our modern lives where extraordinary loss has become rare. The disorder manifests through three hallmark symptoms: reliving the trauma through dreams or flashbacks, anxiety including avoidance of trauma reminders and heightened startle responses, and emotional numbness with detachment from others and loss of ability to love.
Contrary to common belief that time heals all wounds, research by Dr. Camille Wortman has shown that parents who lost children in auto accidents remained severely affected 4-7 years later-more depressed, less optimistic, earning 25% less income, and with divorce rates ten times higher than control groups. There was no natural healing process evident; they were just as devastated years later as they had been initially.
While PTSD's diagnostic criteria specify trauma "outside the normal range of human experience" like concentration camps or hostage situations, the disorder affects many who experience more common tragedies. Studies of POWs show that 40 years after captivity, 35% still had moderate to severe symptoms. Rape, affecting potentially one in three to five women in their lifetime, can trigger full PTSD symptoms including sleep disturbance, flashbacks, heightened startle response, and sexual difficulties.
9장
The Layered Architecture of Sexuality
Our erotic life consists of five layers, each grown around the one beneath it. The depth of each layer corresponds to how difficult it is to change. At the core is sexual identity-whether you feel yourself to be a man or woman, typically consistent with your genitals except in rare cases of transsexuals who feel trapped in the wrong body. The next layer is sexual orientation-whether you're attracted to the opposite sex, same sex, or both, best determined by examining your fantasy life rather than your history.
Transsexuals are biologically normal but psychologically as abnormal as anyone can be. Despite having physically normal bodies, they believe they're trapped in the wrong sex's body. This belief causes immense suffering-depression, suicidal thoughts, even self-mutilation. Every psychotherapy approach has failed to change this core belief, with successful cases so rare they're individually documented.
Sex-change operations have become the treatment of choice. The process typically begins with living in the desired gender role, followed by hormone treatment, and finally surgery. Follow-up studies show most patients adapt well to their new lives, with those having poor surgical outcomes faring worst psychologically.
Sexual orientation appears to have anatomical foundations. Simon Levay found heterosexual men have twice as much tissue in the middle anterior hypothalamus as homosexual men, who have amounts similar to women. This area develops when male rat brains are hormonally masculinized before birth.
Twin studies support both genetic and hormonal components: identical twins show 52% concordance for homosexuality versus 22% for fraternal twins and only 9% for nontwin brothers. Since fraternal twins and nontwin brothers share the same percentage of genes but fraternal twins are more concordant, this points to fetal hormones as an additional cause.
Sexual preferences form the third layer of our erotic life, more malleable than identity or orientation but still deeply rooted. Almost all men develop highly specific, concrete sexual preferences that become central to their fantasies, while almost no women develop true fetishes. Men and women differ vastly in their erotic preferences. Men universally acquire strong arousal to specific objects-legs, breasts, specific scenarios-focusing on parts rather than whole persons. Women's preferences involve subtler scenarios with plot lines, intimacy, and character, focusing on relationships and whole persons rather than isolated features.
Sex roles represent a politically charged but scientifically documented layer of our sexual identity. While early childhood sex-role programming seems resistant to change, adolescents and adults raised by androgynous parents often become more androgynous themselves.
Sexual performance-the fifth layer of our sexuality-can falter even when all other layers are functioning well. Men may experience impotence or premature ejaculation; women may struggle with arousal or reaching orgasm. These dysfunctions were once considered untreatable sources of quiet desperation, but today they're largely curable.
10장
The Dieting Delusion: Why Weight Resists Change
The concept of "ideal weight" comes from insurance company data showing lighter people live longer on average. But this correlation is misleading-weight has a normal biological distribution. Some people are naturally heavier due to bone structure or metabolism, not overeating. The crucial claim that dieting down to "ideal" weight extends life remains unproven, as no study has properly compared naturally thin people with successful dieters.
Common beliefs about weight are largely false. Obese people don't generally consume more calories than thin people-in fact, they often need fewer calories to maintain their weight. There's no distinctive "overweight personality," and physical inactivity is more likely a result of obesity than its cause. Most damaging is the myth that overweight indicates weak willpower. In reality, dieting pits conscious will against powerful biological defenses against starvation-a battle the body almost always wins long-term.
Americans are obsessed with thinness, with most overweight adults thinking negatively about their bodies multiple times daily. In 1990, Americans spent $30 billion on weight loss-nearly matching federal spending on education, employment, and social services combined. Meanwhile, fashion and media promote increasingly thinner female ideals while average Americans grow heavier.
While almost any diet can produce short-term weight loss, scientific consensus confirms nearly everyone regains the weight within a few years. Oprah Winfrey's highly publicized experience with Optifast-losing 67 pounds then regaining it all-exemplifies this pattern. Studies of very-low-calorie diets show dismal long-term results: in one study, half of patients regained all weight within three years, 90% within nine years, with only 5% maintaining their losses. Most dieters regain almost all weight within 4-5 years, with perhaps only 10% remaining thin. The longer the follow-up, the worse the outcome.
Just as rats permanently change their metabolism after starvation cycles, humans radically transform how they process food after dieting. Dieters become preoccupied with food, while their bodies hoard energy by burning fewer calories during normal activities-even sleeping burns 10% fewer calories in formerly obese people. The body develops stronger defenses with each diet cycle, making weight loss progressively harder.
The concept of "natural weight"-the weight your body genetically defends-explains much about dieting failures and eating disorders. While identical twins reared apart maintain remarkably similar weights throughout life, and adopted children's weights resemble their biological parents rather than adoptive ones, most people try to achieve "ideal" weights far below their natural weights. This discrepancy has fueled an epidemic of bulimia nervosa affecting up to 2% of adult women severely.
Being overweight carries health risks, but dieting itself may be more dangerous. The evidence suggests enormous obesity (double "ideal" weight) likely causes premature death; substantial obesity (30-100% above ideal) possibly causes health damage; mild to moderate overweight (10-30% above ideal) may have marginal mortality increase; and being underweight is clearly associated with substantially greater mortality. More concerning is the evidence that weight cycling from dieting increases mortality risk. Three large studies show people who lose and regain weight have 30-100% greater risk of heart disease than those with stable weight.
11장
The Complex Reality of Addiction and Recovery
The disease concept of alcoholism sparks passionate debate. While Alcoholics Anonymous insists alcoholism is a disease rendering alcoholics "powerless," others maintain it's a vice resulting from poor choices. Critics argue alcoholism lacks specific physical pathology and represents a continuum of consumption rather than a discrete condition. Defenders counter that like hypertension, alcoholism has hereditary components and physical consequences despite lacking a single cause.
Alcoholics often display depression, anxiety, dependency, self-doubt, pessimism, and various negative traits, leading some to propose an "addictive personality" that predisposes people to substance abuse. However, landmark longitudinal studies by George Vaillant followed men for over forty years, tracking them from before any alcoholism developed. His research revealed there is no alcoholic personality. The only predictors of alcoholism were having alcoholic relatives and Northern European (particularly Irish) ancestry. Depression, emotional insecurity, dependency, and criminality were consequences of alcoholism, not causes.
Alcoholism is progressive in the sense that tolerance develops-requiring increasing amounts for the same effect-and withdrawal occurs upon abstinence. AA describes progression from blackouts and intoxication to arrests and morning drinking, followed by failed attempts to quit, job loss, and eventually hospitalization or death. Vaillant's research confirms this is mostly accurate. Of 110 inner-city alcoholics studied over forty years, 73 followed a progressive course ending in either abstinence (half) or extreme abuse and death (half). The remaining 37 recovered without a progressive pattern.
Despite substantial research funding, little definitive knowledge exists about alcoholism recovery. Recovery is more likely with fewer symptoms, being married, employed, middle-aged, educated, white, and middle-class-social stability doubles recovery chances. Paradoxically, extreme severity also helps recovery by forcing "hitting bottom," while moderate cases show worse outcomes.
Long-term studies show approximately 20% achieve secure abstinence (three+ years), while about half die prematurely or remain alcohol-dependent. Four natural healing factors emerge among those who recover: finding substitute dependencies (like candy, smoking, or hobbies), facing painful medical consequences, discovering sources of hope (like religion or AA), and developing new love relationships.
Formal treatments show only marginally better results than natural recovery rates, with controlled studies finding elaborate inpatient programs no more effective than simple advice sessions. A dramatic London study showed one year of intensive treatment produced identical results to a single advice session (25% improved). George Vaillant found the same pattern when comparing his intensive clinic treatment to no treatment-one-third improved, two-thirds did poorly in both cases.
12장
Breaking Free from Childhood's Shadow
Life divides into two great seasons: expansion and contraction. The first season focuses on discovering the world's demands and fitting ourselves to them through education, relationships, and career. The second season begins around midlife when we reorganize our lives around what we've discovered matters most to us intrinsically. This transition can be triggered by success, failure, boredom, or simply the recognition that time is finite.
The chapter challenges the popular "inner child" recovery movement which claims adult problems stem primarily from childhood trauma. This philosophy, blending Freudian premises with AA's confessional approach, has gained widespread acceptance despite questionable evidence. Its appeal stems partly from post-WWII rejection of genetic explanations (tainted by Nazi misuse) and partly from the consolation of victim narratives that shift blame for personal failures.
Despite researchers' enthusiasm to find evidence that childhood traumas affect adult development, the actual findings have been surprisingly minimal. Parental death shows only slight effects on adult depression (and only for females losing mothers before age eleven). Parental divorce shows minimal lasting impact into adulthood. Most critically, these studies failed to control for genetic factors.
When genetics are properly controlled-through studies of identical twins reared apart or adopted children compared with both biological and adoptive parents-the results consistently show massive genetic effects on adult personality traits like authoritarianism, religiosity, depression, and alcoholism, with negligible effects from specific childhood events. While genes account for less than half the variance in personality, researchers have yet to identify any specific non-genetic influences that significantly shape adult personality.
The most surprising finding about childhood is that interfamilial personality variance equals intrafamilial variance once genetics are controlled for. This means siblings from the same family differ from each other as much as from random children. Rather than a "flashbulb" model where dramatic childhood events determine personality, a better metaphor is the "snowball"-small initial differences in traits or experiences gather momentum over time.
Childhood events and even trauma have surprisingly weak effects on adult personality. We are not prisoners of our past-how we were raised, fed, or even traumatic events like a parent's death exert minimal influence on our adult selves. As adults, we possess genuine freedom to change. The free-will controversy stems largely from misunderstanding about words-freedom simply means the absence of coercion. Neither childhood events nor genes coerce our adult personalities.
The inner-child movement's premise that catharsis cures adult problems lacks evidence. Techniques like asking forgiveness of your inner child or divorcing your parents produce powerful emotional experiences and temporary relief, but no lasting change. When measured by how much people enjoy it, catharsis receives high praise; when measured by actual results, it fails. The afterglow dissipates within days, leaving real problems untouched.
Coming to grips with childhood won't yield insight into how you became the adult you are, as causal links between childhood events and adult personality are too weak. It won't cure your troubles or raise self-esteem. But examining childhood offers a special kind of self-knowledge-knowledge about patterns in your tapestry of life, not about causes. Recognizing consistent mistakes, emotional reactions, or bodily responses that recur throughout your life is valuable.
13장
The Theory of Depth and Change
When surveying all the problems and patterns we've examined, we see varying degrees of changeability. From panic (curable) to sexual identity (unchangeable), success in changing depends on the depth of the problem. Depth has three aspects: biological, evidentiary, and power. Biologically deep problems are prepared or innate, represented genetically, and have evolutionary history. The evidentiary aspect concerns how easily beliefs can be confirmed or disconfirmed. The power aspect refers to how broadly a belief explains one's world. Problems are harder to change when they have biological underpinnings, when their underlying beliefs are easily confirmed but difficult to disconfirm, and when those beliefs have high explanatory power.
Transsexualism, the inversion of sexual identity, is the deepest problem by these criteria. It's biologically established during gestation, virtually undisconfirmable, pervades all of life, and is completely unchangeable. Sexual orientation is almost as deep. It likely has gestational biological underpinnings and specific brain structures. Once established, evidence steadily mounts for it-the attraction is enjoyable and fitting. It's easily confirmed, hard to disconfirm, and pervades much of one's life.
PTSD is a disorder of the soul. Though lacking evolutionary basis or known heritability, its underlying beliefs are powerful and readily confirmed. After tragedy, your worldview changes fundamentally-the world seems cruel, unjust, and hopeless. This view is constantly reinforced by daily news and rarely softened. Therapy might reduce specific fears but little more has been accomplished in alleviating PTSD except for rape victims.
Weight is quite deep. Dieting works only temporarily for over 90% of "overweight" people because weight is defended by powerful biological and psychological processes that evolved through famine. Multiple defense layers include brain centers, blood-sugar regulation, metabolic changes, fat storage, and intense cravings. Your eating habits are deeply connected to your lifestyle, work, relationships, and recreation.
Alcoholism has biological underpinnings and moderate heritability. Cells become dependent on alcohol, and the belief that one needs alcohol is hard to disconfirm when one rarely abstains. Alcoholism has power as a way of life, affecting how one perceives social situations, plans activities, and manages relationships. Therefore, it's not easily changed.
Everyday anxiety isn't as deep as alcoholism. Fear has evolutionary basis and genetic components. Those born fearful tend to lead fearful lives. Anxious thoughts are hard to disconfirm through avoidance and frequently confirmed by real dangers. The belief that the world is frightening has considerable power. With discipline, drugs, and therapy, anxiety can be reduced somewhat.
Pervasive anger is somewhat less deep than anxiety. It has evolutionary value and some heritability. If you believe others trespass against you, you can usually find evidence, though you'll also encounter disconfirmation since targets of your anger aren't always out to get you. General beliefs like "Others are out to get me" are powerful, while specific beliefs like "My boss is a jerk" have low power. Anger seems somewhat-though not sweepingly-modifiable.
Panic lies at the surface, being merely a mistaken belief that physical symptoms indicate serious medical conditions. Few things hinge on this belief, making it low in power. It's easily disconfirmed by showing patients their symptoms are anxiety-related, not life-threatening. It lacks strong evolutionary history and isn't heritable. When addressed through therapy or evidence, panic is almost always cured.
