learned helplessness

noun

1. the act of giving up trying as a result of consistent failure to be rewarded in life, thought to be a cause of depression

Example Sentences

Such learned helplessness would be a serious mistake.

From Slate

We keep talking about an imperial court that is slowly but certainly constructing an imperial executive, but none of that can happen without the learned helplessness of an American public that was intended to be sovereign.

From Slate

Learned helplessness becomes a survival mode.

From Salon

Can you explain what you call the “bipartisan acceptance of judicial supremacy” and the passivity and the learned helplessness that comes with it, and how that has delivered us into what you say is actually a decades-long constitutional crisis?

From Slate

The American people remain in a deep slumber and state of learned helplessness as Donald Trump and his forces continue with the shock and awe campaign against American democracy, civil society, the rule of law, the Constitution and human decency.

From Salon