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Just a passing thought that maybe it's not a mental issue with Ackley but a physical one.
It's eerily similar how Brad Miller's early career path has mirrored Ackley's, they both looked homer happy early in their MLB career. Ackley once mentioned to a reporter when he was having success hitting the long ball when he was first came to Seattle that he actually looks to hit a homerun every At-Bat; now maybe that's the correct mindset to have but it seems a little off especially if you compare that to the way Cano approaches his at-bats.
Anyway about 1+ months ago Shannon Drayer published in her blog (it was just a quick passing, one sentence comment) that Ackley is having issues with his ankle again. As we recall in the 2012 offseason, Ackley had ankle surgery to remove bone spurs in his left ankle.
I have no way of knowing if this is actually affecting Dustin's performance at the plate, and I'm just as perplexed and disappointed in the fact the he has never come close to being the player everyone expected - heck I would take James Jones level of performance at this time.
That being said Ackley has had 2-3 month stretches where he begins to hit the ball with authority and looks like the player we all expected that he should become. Looking at his SB numbers pre and post surgery - he doesn't even attempt SB's anymore and he was a player originally known for at least having above average speed.
I do not have any personal with ankle issues or how Ackley issues with bone spurs may create issues with his swing, though my younger brother had to have his ankle fused in his early 30's because of ankle pain (alleviate the pain he would limp around, this would limit his ankle pain but this overcompensation would make his whole body sore by days end), but it could possibly be the reason for Dustin's current poor performance and why historically he has run hot and cold - just maybe when his ankle is feeling good his performance begins to have an upswing