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Summary
Summary
Nearly every depressed person is assured by doctors, well-meaning friends and family, the media, and ubiquitous advertisements that the underlying problem is a chemical imbalance. Such a simple defect should be fixable, yet despite all of the resources that have been devoted to finding a pharmacological solution, depression remains stubbornly widespread. Why are we losing this fight?In this humane and illuminating challenge to defect models of depression, psychologist Jonathan Rottenberg argues that depression is a particularly severe outgrowth of our natural capacity for emotion. In other words, it is a low mood gone haywire. 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 adaptations that evolved to help our ancestors ensure their survival. Moods, high and low, evolved to compel us to more efficiently pursue rewards. While this worked for our ancestors, our modern environment,in which daily survival is no longer a sole focus,makes it all too easy for low mood to slide into severe, long-lasting depression.Weaving together experimental and epidemiological research, clinical observations, and the voices of individuals who have struggled with depression, The Depths offers a bold new account of why depression endures,and makes a strong case for de-stigmatizing this increasingly common condition. In so doing, Rottenberg offers hope in the form of his own and other patients' recovery, and points the way towards new paths for treatment.
Author Notes
Jonathan Rottenberg is an associate professor of psychology at the University of South Florida, where he is Director of the Mood and Emotion labouratory. His work has been covered by Scientific American, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Time. In 2013, Rottenberg launched the Come Out of the Dark campaign to start a better, richer national conversation about depression. He lives in Tampa, Florida.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Although clinical depression dominates contemporary culture's discussion of mental illness, it is often treated as a chemical defect or a state that individuals can overcome through attitude changes. Drawing on epidemiological evidence and his own experimental research, psychologist Rottenberg urges that we understand depression through the science of mood, or "affective science." In this stimulating book that synthesizes research and memoir-Rottenberg himself battled depression-he observes that mood science provides insights into why humans experience low mood-the defining feature of depression-and allows us to explore its causative forces. He calls attention to the many triggers of low mood-group separation, stress, death of loved ones-arguing that humans share a mood system with other mammals that alerts us to the ways social loss can jeopardize our survival; thus, a low mood forces a reassessment of the best course of action in a given situation. Focusing on this evolutionary understanding of depression, he concludes that low mood has benefits both for diagnosing depression and for overcoming it: "Positive moods are not only a sign... that we are on the right track and moving toward evolutionarily favored goals;... we need to understand how experience of well-being might make people do things that keep them well." Agent: Lisa Adams, the Garamond Agency. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A call for a new "diagnostic and therapeutic" paradigm for treating depression by framing it as a mood disorder rather than a disease. Rottenberg (Psychology/Univ. of South Florida; co-editor: Emotion and Psychopathology: Bridging Affective and Clinical Science, 2007) calls attention to the epidemic increase of depression--not only in America, but also in England, Canada and Italy. With more than 15 percent of the population affected by depression, he writes, it is threatening to become "a preeminent public health menace." Despite the massive resources devoted to research and treatment of the disease, "it is striking people at younger and younger ages." Drawing on his own experience as director of the USF Mood and Emotion Laboratory and as someone who himself underwent a multiyear bout of deep depression, he points to disappointing progress in the development of effective antidepressants over the past 60 years, when the rate of recurrence is factored in. The author explains that mood serves an evolutionary function that we share with other mammals; it helps to tune behavior "to situational requirements" in ways that we are mostly unaware of. From an evolutionary perspective, an ordinary sad mood "makes people more deliberate, skeptical and careful in how they process information from their environment." In Rottenberg's opinion, our cultural emphasis on being upbeat can be counterproductive. The human capacity for reflection can derail this semiautomatic process when we seek to enhance pleasurable upbeat moods and worry about being depressed. By shifting our attention to our own mental processes, we risk losing sight of broader goals. Rottenberg does not dismiss the benefits of talk therapy and medications to treat depression or deny the role of genetic predisposition. His laudable aim is to broaden the discussion. An important contribution to his stated aim of promoting "an adult national conversation about depression."]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Why is depression so prevalent and persistent? Why is the disorder so difficult to treat? Rottenberg, a professor of psychology who has suffered from depression, addresses those broad questions from a dual perspective as scientist and patient. Acknowledging that there is no single cause of the depression epidemic, he pushes for a new evolutionary model of mood and theorizes about the potential advantages of negative moods. For example, a low or sad mood might confer greater skepticism, deliberation, and caution in processing information. Mild depression could possibly function as an emotional cocoon that offers an opportunity for a time-out to ascertain what is going wrong. Rottenberg reminds readers that human beings are not wired for bliss. Evolution is fixated on survival and reproduction. Is it conceivable that mild forms of depression aid in achieving those evolutionary goals as crucially as happiness does? In this provocative presentation of the natural history and evolution of depression, the bottom line is, strangely, both deflating and hopeful: Low mood is both inescapable and sometimes useful. --Miksanek, Tony Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
In "The Depths," Rottenberg proposes a new guiding theory of depression. It's not a disease or biological imbalance; it is, rather, a mood, a persistent low emotional state that can quickly go from normal to troubling. Though depression affects something like one out of every five people, it remains largely invisible - and often stigmatized. "Depression has no 'Race for the Cure,'" Rottenberg notes. Some of his observations come off as somewhat obvious ("Among humans, death is a powerful driver of low mood" - well, yes); and some come across as a bit of a stretch to be stated so nonchalantly ("Does a gorilla grieve? All signs point to yes." Actually, in this case, the jury is still out). But the book's scope and ambition are remarkable. In calling for closer study of shallow, as opposed to deep, depression Rottenberg makes a smart point that is too often ignored. To understand depression and have any hope of a cure, we need to look at the full spectrum of behavior - and the label of "mood" makes such an investigation far more likely to succeed.
Table of Contents
| Author's Note | p. ix |
| Chapter 1 Why We Need a New Approach to Depression | p. 1 |
| Chapter 2 Where the Depths Begin | p. 21 |
| Chapter 3 What Other Species Tell Us About Depression | p. 39 |
| Chapter 4 The Bell Tolls: Death as a Universal Trigger | p. 57 |
| Chapter 5 The Seedbed of Low Mood | p. 75 |
| Chapter 6 The Slide | p. 93 |
| Chapter 7 The Black Hole: The Psychobiology of Deep Depression | p. 117 |
| Chapter 8 An Up and Down Thing: Improvement in Depression | p. 141 |
| Chapter 9 In Limbo | p. 163 |
| Chapter 10 The Glory of Recovery | p. 181 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 201 |
| Notes | p. 203 |
| Recommended Readings | p. 243 |
| Index | p. 247 |
