In this sense the therapist is non-directive because they are tracking and following the client. Metaphorically the therapist is walking alongside the client, sometimes a few paces behind and sometimes a few paces ahead, sometimes stopping to discuss where to go next, but always going wherever the client goes.
Martin Seligman developed the theory of learned helplessness, and defined it as the motivational and behavioral deficits displayed by humans when exposed to uncontrollable circumstances.
This chapter reviews the modest origins of the. phenomenon of learned helplessness in the animal laboratory, its extensions to. human beings (especially those displaying dramatic failures of adaptation), and. its eventual emergence as learned optimism.. The remainder of the book. documents two major themes.