It's Macho To Stand Up For Women..

[Visionary7903]

Good to see another forum oldtimer around Mohammad and thanks for starting the thread a few years back!

Now to something many domestic violence victims face, ‘Learned helplessness’:

(source: The Washington Monthly)

Learned helplessness works as follows. When an animal, human or non-human, is exposed to repeated trauma that it cannot control, it sometimes just gives up trying, even when, later, it is possible to escape that trauma. Martin Seligman first hit on the idea when doing conditioning experiments with dogs: he gave the dogs shocks in a hammock from which they could not escape, and then put them in a box that allowed them to escape from shocks (which were delivered through the floor) by jumping over a barrier.
Normally, dogs scramble around trying to escape from the shocks, jump the barrier by accident, figure out (after a few tries) that this is how they can escape from the shocks, and then jump the barrier as soon as the shocks start. But the dogs who had been shocked in the hammocks, in which they could neither escape nor control the shocks, didn’t do that. They ran around for about thirty seconds, and then just lay down on the floor and whimpered.
In the book in which he describes learned helplessness, Seligman cites an even more striking finding: another researcher held wild rats in his hand until they stopped struggling, and then put them in a water tank that they could not escape from. Normal wild rats will swim for 60 hours before drowning. The rats who had been held until they stopped struggling, however, swam for thirty minutes and then drowned.

Learned helplessness happens to humans too:
“Extending the ramifications of these findings to humans, Seligman and his colleagues found that human motivation to initiate responses is also undermined by a lack of control over one’s surroundings. Further research has shown that learned helplessness disrupts normal development and learning and leads to emotional disturbances, especially depression.”
That’s learned helplessness. You put an animal, human or non-human, in a situation in which bad things happen that it can neither escape nor control, and eventually it just gives up.

An interesting approach might involve using some of the pheromone formulas for women based on A314 (I think MX134 was the version used by women in the past). In certain situations, it would give the woman experiencing learned helplessness some kind of a ‘wind at her back’ for her attempts at escape of such situations. The push would still have to come from her don’t get me wrong but like MHarris says in an old post below, there is something in A314 that provides that ‘invisible support for your will’. While the abuser would definitely not be swayed, it is the change in attitude it would bring to the victim and sense of empowerment.

The keys would have to be:

• the A314-like product would have to have be supplemented with other mones on the side which would be rotated ideally (to keep the wearer as receptive as possible to the effects of the mones and to keep others’ as receptive as possible which will result in a positive feedback loop back towards the wearer further enhancing her confidence);
• there would have to be some kind of planned push from the wearer to change the situation;
• there would be a plan in place as to what to do to get out of the situation (perhaps with input/help from social workers and other members of the victim’s support network);
• most importantly of course, the victim would have to have the realistic possibility to escape (and unless she is stuck in a dungeon, the opening to escape should always be there, even if the victim feels something that is not based in reality after being beat down for so long - that ‘there is no hope’)…

Can you overdose on A314, and how many drops would it take?

That is one of the few “problems”. In a way, I don’t actually like the amount of status that A314 brings. People treat you like you’re better than them – and I don’t think that’s in tune reality. I think all people are incredibly capable (whether or not they use that capability), so, right or wrong, I tend to see people as equals. Now while I don’t necessarily like being put on a pedestal, I do like the amount of COOPERATION the status change brings. Almost anything I ask for, I’ll get with …

MHarris (March 30, 2006):
"…That is one of the few “problems”.

In a way, I don’t actually like the amount of status that A314 brings. People treat you like you’re better than them – and I don’t think that’s in tune reality.

I think all people are incredibly capable (whether or not they use that capability), so, right or wrong, I tend to see people as equals.

Now while I don’t necessarily like being put on a pedestal, I do like the amount of COOPERATION the status change brings. Almost anything I ask for, I’ll get with A314 … and people tend to cooperate with you happily, not begrudgingly or with secret disdain.

It also gives me incredible access to others. I’ve been able to meet all the key people I’ve wanted to with it.

A314 + a little self volition = some incredible personal power.

Really great for a “man with a plan” – like invisible support for your will. You could say “it’s got it your back”. "