We often feel that the solution to individual and social problems is hopeless, and hopelessness induces apathy. One of the difficulties we have is deciding between the calm resignation of hopelessness and the defensively maintained feeling that there is no real problem in the first place. When the odds are too great, the resolution too remote, the punishment for aggression too severe, the defensive response not on tap, apathy results. Fortunately, most of us never reach a state of complete apathy, such as has been found in studies of some war prisoners who were victims of prolonged degradation and deprivation ith the result that they became utterly indifferent to their surroundings.
An environment filled with persistent frustration can breed apathy. Through the news media. television, and from personal bservations we see so much of the negative that we tend to become ",pathetic to situations which we believe are beyond our control, and even to those capable of control. Apathy, in the extreme and at critical es, can become a threat to mental health.
