The Hope Circuit: A Psychologist’s Journey from Helplessness to Optimism

Martin Seligman ’64 has had an enormous impact on the field of psychology, and his Positive Psychology movement has shifted some of the focus on the discipline from what is wrong with people to the things that make life worth living. The Hope Circuit (PublicAffairs) is Seligman’s memoir in which he recounts everything from how he learned to study optimism (after talking with his 5-year-old daughter) to some of his major findings such as learned helplessness (which he now reveals was incorrect), to his own battles with depression at a young age.