In the 1970's a researcher named Martin Seligman discovered a curious side-effect of some experiments he was performing on dogs.
In these experiments he had three groups of dogs. One group was placed, one at a time, into a cage that had an electrified floor and no way to escape from the shocks delivered to them through the floor. A second group was placed in the same set-up but they had the option of jumping over a barrier to get away from the electric shocks. The third group were not exposed to electric shocks at all.
After delivering shocks to the first two groups Seligman then put them all, one at a time, into a cage where they could escape being shocked. Only two of the three groups escaped. Most of the dogs who had been unable to escape the previous shocks did not even try to escape despite having the option to do so in the new experiment.
Seligman coined the term "Learned Helplessness" to describe the condition of the dogs who failed to escape even when escape was possible. He believed they had learned escape was not possible so they did not even try any more.
There has been much research into this phenomenon since then and Seligman's original theory about this phenomenon being linked to human depression has been revised but the experiment continues to resonate within me personally.
When I learned about this experiment at university I immediately identified with those poor dogs. I felt I understood why they would sit, whimpering, and endure the pain rather than try to escape it. Sometimes the pain of failing is much worse than any other kind of pain. If you don't try you can hope you would succeed and having that hope is better than trying, failing, and losing that little bit of hope.
An experiment like this cannot really explain the consequences of life experiences on human beings but it illustrates how some people can end up, like those dogs, in a cage from which they make no attempt to escape. They lie down, whimpering, and just endure the misery of life.
Seligman's dogs were subjected to electric shocks at unpredictable times. They were confined in a small cage from which they quickly learned there was no escape but this does not begin to compare with what people can be subjected to.