The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic Author: Jonathan Rottenberg | Language: English | ISBN:
B00IA7DQQK | Format: PDF
The Depths: The Evolutionary Origins of the Depression Epidemic Description
Why are we losing the fight against depression? In this groundbreaking work, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg explains that despite advances in pharmaceutical science, progress has been hampered by our fundamental misunderstanding of depression as a psychological or chemical defect. Instead, Rottenberg introduces a surprising alternative: that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion; it is a low mood gone haywire. Drawing on recent developments in the science of moodand his own harrowing depressive experience as a young adultRottenberg explains depression in evolutionary terms, showing how its dark pull arises from adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival. 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 enduresand points the way toward new paths for treatment.
- File Size: 1046 KB
- Print Length: 274 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0465022219
- Publisher: Basic Books (February 11, 2014)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00IA7DQQK
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,176 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Depression - #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Evolution - #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness
- #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Depression - #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Evolution - #11
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Mental Illness
I just learned about and purchased this book and so far have only scanned it. I will review it more fully at a later time. Let me begin, however, by saying that any book that offers an evolutionarily-informed analysis of depression as an alternative to the standard medical model of unmitigated pathology is to be warmly welcomed! I have seen enough of this book to say, as an evolutionary biologist who has published on depression myself, that there is substance here. Yea!!
It looks, however, as though several potentially important works concerning the evolutionary function of depression in human social life largely have been skirted here. As the author states, theories don't prove anything. However, theories guide research, and without full detailed knowledge of all the potentially key correct theories, which can be very subtle and complex (after all, human minds and human social life are staggeringly complex), research will not progress efficiently. Moreover, the potentially therapeutic understanding of one's own condition will not be maximized.
Note that humans are obligate social creatures that depend, cross-culturally, upon "contractual reciprocity" for survival and reproduction. Thus we all build a social network around us that helps us solve most of our fitness-related problems. This contractual matrix sustains us, but it can also trap us... this basic problem must have been very common throughout much of human and perhaps even proto-human evolutionary history.
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