Laman, Lemuel, and the Psychology of Learned Helplessness: A Fresh Look at Their Story

The story of Laman and Lemuel is usually told as a tale about murmuring, rebellion, and refusal to trust God. But when read through a modern psychological lens—especially Martin Seligman’s framework of learned helplessness—their behavior becomes far more complex. Instead of two villains, we begin to see two men caught inside an interaction system filled with cultural expectations, identity threats, family conflict, and repeated experiences of uncontrollable stress.

And like many of us, they respond not with peace and clarity, but with frustration, resignation, and sometimes aggression.

Why Learned Helplessness Fits Their Story

Seligman’s model began with a simple idea: when beings experience stressors that feel inescapable or unpredictable, they often “learn” that their actions don’t matter. Over time, they may stop trying, lash out, blame, or shut down. In humans, this shows up as an attributional style—the habitual way we explain events. When people believe setbacks are:

• Stable (“It will always be this way.”)
• Global (“It affects everything.”)
• Beyond my control”

…they begin to operate from helplessness rather than agency.

That lens makes the Book of Mormon narrative look surprisingly human, and surprisingly modern.

1. Culture, Status, and the Threat of Lost Identity

Laman and Lemuel grew up in a world where the eldest son held real social power. Birthright wasn’t symbolic—it determined leadership, inheritance, and honor.

Leaving Jerusalem shattered that structure. Their father’s prophetic leadership displaced their expected authority. When Nephi began receiving revelation and divine favor, the destabilization grew even sharper.

From a psychological view, this creates a perfect storm:

• Status threat (“My role is being taken.”)
• Uncontrollable loss (“Nothing I do brings the old order back.”)
• Identity break (“Who am I, if not the oldest son in charge?”)

People in this state often experience their world as unpredictable and unfair—not because they’re stubborn, but because their entire psychological map is collapsing. In Seligman’s terms: they begin to believe that no amount of effort can restore what they’ve lost.

2. Fragile Faith and a Contingent Relationship With God

Laman and Lemuel do believe—sometimes. When an angel rebukes them or when the storm nearly destroys their ship, they soften. They confess. They momentarily trust.

But their faith is contingent: they believe when conditions improve, and doubt when hardship returns.

This is the attributional cycle of helplessness:

• “God blesses Nephi but not me.”
• “No matter what I do, things don’t change.”
• “The journey keeps getting worse, so God must be against us.”

When a person believes spiritual outcomes are unpredictable or permanently stacked against them, their effort naturally collapses. They stop seeking revelation. They resent commandments. They interpret hardship as condemnation rather than growth.

It’s not simple unbelief—it’s a shattered sense of spiritual contingency.

3. Relationship With Nephi: The Competence Gap

Nephi is spiritually confident, physically capable, and consistently successful in his pursuits. From a leadership or scriptural perspective, he is inspiring. But from the viewpoint of an insecure older brother, he is threatening.

Nephi’s success signals to Laman and Lemuel:

• “He has control; we don’t.”
• “He receives revelation; we’re shut out.”
• “He builds ships and bows; we can’t keep up.”

When one person consistently thrives in the same environment where others struggle, those struggling can internalize a message of permanent disadvantage.

Seligman would call this a “stable, global attribution”:
“Nephi succeeds because he’s favored; we fail because we’re fundamentally lesser.”

People who feel powerless in comparison often take one of two paths:

• withdrawal
• or aggressive resistance.
  
  Laman and Lemuel swing between both.

4. Relationship With Lehi: Authority, Ambiguity, and Resentment

To them, Lehi’s visions uprooted their lives. His revelation brought danger, loss of home, and years of suffering. While Lehi saw divine deliverance, they saw unpredictability. One day he was a wealthy father; the next, a prophet calling them into the wilderness.

A child or adult who perceives parental authority as inconsistent—especially when tied to hardship—can experience a deep sense of powerlessness. They begin to believe:

• “My life direction isn’t up to me.”
• “Appeals won’t change anything.”
• “The decisions affecting me are beyond my influence.”

Viewed this way, their resistance isn’t just rebellion—it’s an attempt to regain a sense of agency in a system where they feel they have none.

5. Trials and Hard Things: Why They Collapse Instead of Rise

Laman and Lemuel face famine, wandering, fear, danger at sea, and constant uncertainty. But unlike Nephi, they lack an inner framework for interpreting adversity as meaningful. So hardship becomes evidence of doom, not growth.

Their pattern aligns with classic helplessness responses:

• Blaming others
• Wanting to return to the last “safe” place
• Fantasizing about escape
• Becoming physically or verbally aggressive
• Avoiding introspection
• Resisting change

When people don’t believe their efforts will improve conditions, they stop exerting effort—and attack those who seem to have control.

6. Avoidance of Self-Confrontation

This may be the most human element of all.

When confronted, Laman and Lemuel rarely introspect.

They rarely ask, “What is my part?”

Instead, they project: Nephi is manipulative, Lehi is visionary to a fault, God is punishing.

This is typical in learned helplessness. Facing one’s own contribution is painful—it implies responsibility, which implies the power to change. But if someone believes they can’t change or can’t succeed, introspection becomes too threatening.

Blame becomes the coping mechanism of the powerless.

They rarely ask, “What is my part?”

7. Birthright: The Core Wound Beneath the Behavior

Underneath their actions lies a profound psychological injury:
“We should have been the leaders.”

When that expectation dies, it leaves:

• humiliation
• resentment
• loss of identity
• loss of control
• fear of becoming irrelevant

This is not just pride—it’s the collapse of a worldview.

And when a worldview collapses, people either rebuild it…
or fight bitterly to restore the old one.
Their entire story is the second option.

A Different Ending Was Theoretically Possible

If we apply Seligman’s research, we see clear interventions that could have shifted their trajectory:

• Small mastery experiences to rebuild confidence
• Shared leadership roles to restore legitimate status pathways
• Attributional retraining (“This setback is temporary and specific”)
• Emotion-regulation training to reduce impulsive aggression
• Meaning-making frameworks to reinterpret adversity
• Mentorship that reinforces internal locus of control

Their downfall wasn’t a lack of capacity. It was a lack of tools and intentional choice.

Why This Matters

When we read Laman and Lemuel through the lens of learned helplessness, we don’t excuse their choices. But we understand their humanity. We see how good people can get stuck in bad patterns when:

• their identity is threatened
• their world becomes unpredictable
• they feel incapable
• they believe nothing they do will improve their lives

Their story stops being about villains and starts being about vulnerability.
It becomes a mirror—one that shows how easily any of us can slip into passive despair, reactive anger, or blame when we stop believing our choices matter.

And in that mirror, we also see the antidote: agency, meaning, inner work, and a restored sense of divine partnership.

Seligman’s “Inescapable / Uncontrollable” Concept with Sources

Martin E. P. Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness centers on one key idea:
When an individual is exposed to inescapable or uncontrollable adverse events, they may develop the belief that nothing they do matters. This leads to passivity, resignation, and reduced effort even when control becomes available later.

Core Sources

1. “Learned Helplessness: Theory and Evidence” – Maier & Seligman
   • Foundational paper showing dogs exposed to inescapable shocks later failed to escape when escape was possible.
   • Source:
     https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/lhtheoryevidence.pdf
2. “Learned Helplessness at Fifty: Insights from Neuroscience” – Maier & Seligman (2016)
   • Updated review: helplessness arises specifically under uncontrollable stress.
   • Source:
     https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/sites/default/files/learnedhelplessnessat50.pdf
3. Helplessness: On Depression, Development, and Death – Martin Seligman (1975)
   • Classic book expanding the concept into human psychology, depression, and chronic adversity.
   • Source:
     https://www.thetedkarchive.com/library/martin-seligman-helplessness
4. SimplyPsychology – “Learned Helplessness”
   • Overview explaining how repeated uncontrollable negative events cause people to stop trying, even when control returns.
   • Source:
     https://www.simplypsychology.org/learned-helplessness.html
5. From helplessness to controllability: toward a neuroscience of resilience (2023)
   • Shows that controllability vs. uncontrollability is the decisive factor; uncontrollable stress produces helplessness behaviors.
   • Source:
     https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10205144/
6. Learned Helplessness (Wikipedia)
   • Concise summary of the theory, experiments, and modern updates.
   • Source:
     https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness
7. Encyclopedia Britannica – “Learned Helplessness”
   • Defines it as a belief formed through repeated uncontrollable negative experiences.
   • Source:
     https://www.britannica.com/science/learned-helplessness

Key Concepts (Condensed)

• Inescapability = the organism cannot change or avoid the negative situation, no matter what it does.
• Unpredictability or lack of controllability causes the belief: “My actions don’t influence outcomes.”
• This generalizes: even when escape or control becomes possible later, the individual may not try.
• Human parallels include depression, passivity, chronic discouragement, and avoidance after long-term stress or repeated failure.
• Modern neuroscience confirms: the crucial factor is not the stress itself, but whether the individual had control over it.
• Experiences of control can reverse helplessness.