Neuroscience has a name for the way so many Jews are feeling today: learned helplessness |
Another week goes by, and with it, the feeling that terrible things are happening and that there’s nothing we can do to change them.
That’s how I feel as an Israeli living in New York, and I know many people around me, both here and at home, feel the same. The horrifying videos of Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, along with the other hostages still held by Hamas in inhumane conditions, leave me with a deep sense of helplessness. And alongside this horror, there is another one that cannot be ignored: the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza, the reports of starvation and civilian casualties. I fully recognize Hamas’s responsibility for this reality but I also believe that the current Israeli policy in Gaza, led by Netanyahu and his shameless ministers whom I strongly oppose, is steering the country I grew up in toward very dark places, harming the Israeli hostages, innocent Palestinians, and anyone who is trying to secure a more just and hopeful future for the region.
I know that not all of my readers agree with me politically and that some may even be frustrated or angry as they read these lines, but here is the thing: You do not have to agree with me to recognize this feeling. The feeling that you try to change something in the world, you go to protests, you vote, you donate to organizations, you sign petitions and post on social media, and still there is the crushing sense that none of it makes any difference to what is actually happening in the world.
As a doctoral student in cognitive neuroscience exploring how the brain works, I would like to offer a different perspective on our current condition. I know that psychology and neuroscience have devoted considerable attention to our state of mind, which even has a name: learned helplessness. And I know that in recent years, research has also begun to ask how we can resist this pull and keep acting, even when the world feels unmovable. I believe this........