The depths

A research psychologist offers a sweeping new theory of depression grounded in the evolution of mood. Why are we losing the fight against depression? Despite an explosion of scientific research on depression-from cross-cultural studies to neuroscience to pharmaceuticals - the number of depressed peo [...]
Visa längre beskrivning

A research psychologist offers a sweeping new theory of depression grounded in the evolution of mood. Why are we losing the fight against depression? Despite an explosion of scientific research on depression-from cross-cultural studies to neuroscience to pharmaceuticals - the number of depressed people is only growing. In a chilling prediction, the World Health Organization projects that the amount of disability and life lost due to depression worldwide will by 2020 be greater than war, accidents, cancer, stroke, and all other health conditions except for heart disease. In this groundbreaking work, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg explains why efforts to diagnose depression are failing. The Depths contends that depression is not a deficiency, as is commonly believed, but an extension of an ancient response to adverse circumstances that must be understood in the larger context of mood. While high moods evolved to compel us to more efficiently pursue rewards, low moods evolved to focus our attention on obstacles in our path. Sadness is a special, low mood state that is meant to interrupt our normal activity and compel us to analyze a loss.While this was a useful adaptation for our ancestors-sadness prompted by the death of a parent, for example, forced surviving family members to stop and figure out who would care for remaining children-sadness combined with our contemporary environment (in which daily survival is no longer the sole focus of life) often escalates into severe, long-lasting depression. Drawing on recent developments in the science of mood-and his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adult - Rottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from our animal nature. In showing that persistent depression emerges from the forces that govern normal mood states, The Depths explores such questions as where the capacity for depression comes from, why ordinary low mood so often turns into serious depression, and why depression, once it takes root, is so tough to eradicate. The disease/defect model of depression has served to carry on the centuries-old stigma of mental illness while failing to deliver either an explanation or a cure.As Rottenberg shows, sadness and depression have deep roots in our development as a species, which helps us to understand why mood disorders can be so tenacious. Weaving together experimental and epidemiological research, clinical observations, and the voices of people who have struggled with depression, The Depths offers a bold new account of why depression endures-and points the way towards new paths for treatment.