by Elissa Habinsky, M.A., M.S.
It seems as though just about everyone is watching “Making a Murderer”, which is a “docuseries” on Netflix. Without giving away too much, it is about a man exonerated by DNA after 18 years in prison, who then becomes a suspect in another crime. While watching this docuseries, myself and pretty much everyone else I know, has been at one time or another consumed with outrage. “How can our judicial system operate this way?“, “This is completely unfair and unjust.”
After viewing episode 8 of 10, I started to think about what Albert Ellis would say about my reaction. Most probably, he would try to help me achieve a high frustration tolerance and develop an unconditional life acceptance (ULA). Developing ULA is difficult in this situation since accepting the fact that innocent people end up in jail for crimes they do not commit is a hard pill to swallow. With that said, in more general terms, it is clearly beneficial not to become enraged about adversities that cannot be immediately changed. Furthermore, it is also advantageous to change unhealthy anger to healthy anger so that I and/or others can problem-solve more effectively, and ultimately channel the healthy anger into constructive action.
Furthermore, it seems that many viewers have not been consumed by maladaptive anger and that their healthy anger indeed has sprung them into action. As such, thousands of people around the country have signed petitions asking President Obama to weigh in on this case. Although President Obama has no jurisdiction over this matter, this kind of action is preferable to the many more maladaptive alternatives.
To conclude, if you have not already watched this docuseries, I highly recommend it.
