US Army's new weapon is thinking positively
http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-armys-new-weapon-is-thinking-positively-20091116-iicg.html
FACED with rising rates of depression, post traumatic stress disorder, drug abuse and suicide among its war-weary soldiers, the Pentagon has turned to the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, to train its troops in how to lead happier lives.
The aim of the four-year program is to make the US Army ''just as psychologically fit as physically fit'', Professor Seligman told the Herald, as a vanguard of more than 150 sergeants learnt about emotional resilience at his University of Pennsylvania research centre.
Despite their ''grizzled'' tough guy images, sergeants are in the best position to pass on psychological coping skills to soldiers in their command in a bid to prevent mental problems developing.
''They are the teachers in the army,'' said Professor Seligman, who will visit Sydney next month to address a scientific forum with the Dalai Lama at the Mind and Its Potential conference in Darling Harbour.
At the forum he will present results of 17 controlled studies of his team's resilience training in schools, published recently in theOxford Review of Education, which show it can reduce hopelessness and prevent depression, in some cases halving the rate of moderate to severe depressive symptoms in young people.
Two years ago, Geelong Grammar School in Victoria was the first to introduce this positive psychology approach across a whole institution, and the program only needed to be slightly modified to suit the million-strong army, Professor Seligman said.
''The sergeants will receive basically the same kind of training Geelong Grammar teachers had.''
New technology has dramatically changed overseas service for US troops, who face repeated deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. ''This is the first war in which soldiers have cell phones to call home and get into a fight with their spouses about the kids,'' he said.
It meant soldiers could benefit from learning psychological skills to cope with everyday issues, such as how to get along better with partners and co-workers and handle personal rejection. ''A lot of the depression and anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder [for soldiers] is built up, not only out of combat, but out of the usual losses and stresses of civilian life.''
Positive psychology was not just ''grandmotherly common sense'', he said, but was based on three areas of skills that can be taught and measured, including how to develop positive emotions and engage more in life with activities that make time seem to stop - a so-called state of flow. ''While there are shortcuts to positive emotion - you can take drugs, masturbate, watch television or go shopping - there are no shortcuts to flow,'' said Professor Seligman, who goes into flow playing bridge or tending his roses.
The third key to happiness was to lead a meaningful life, ''knowing what your highest strengths are and then using them to belong to and serve something you believe is larger than the self''.
Like Australian school students, the soldiers will also be taught to avoid catastrophising events, and jumping to the worst-case scenario if, for example, a comrade goes missing.
Worrying about developing post-traumatic stress disorder can lead to a self-fulfilling, downward spiral. Soldiers need to know that post-traumatic growth, in which horrific experiences can make people emotionally stronger, is also common, he said.
More than 40 scientists, psychologists and philosophers will speak at the conference on the capacity of the brain to change and develop.
780m; $1.2bn), estimates NICE.