Thank you so much for that comment, I totally agree with you. As you say, with more ethical studies and raised awareness, hopefully more people will be able to nurture their loved ones without imbuing them with these harmful mental states.
I'd read about a "child training" book that was popular amongst conservative evangelical parents, and this sprung to mind as I was reading about learned helplessness. It's a concept I vaguely remember from my school days, but I'd not realised that it was also a potential model for depression and anxiety disorders, which is the angle I've come at this from.
I just looked up the book and I'm shocked something like this is sold in such high numbers....terrible. Treating a child like this can not only lead to depression and anxieties, but even to a dissociative identity disorder. It is so easy to understand that nobody, neither human nor animal, can learn something when they are put under such a stress. I really don't get it that something like this is seen as useful.