Posted by Oddzilla on August 10, 2000, at 18:24:01
In reply to Re: Malignant Sadness - title source.., posted by dj on August 9, 2000, at 22:59:57
Do you think depression is malignant sadness? I think I would call it malignant disconnection as opposed to healthy detachment. Or meaninglessness as opposed to meaning. That's more what it feels like to me. Loss of interpersonal relationships would probably underly those causes too.
Of course I'm old enough to remember when depression was "anger turned inward". It's been a long time since I heard that one, thank goodness.
And thanks for telling me the ending of Anatomy of Melancholy. I rescued a three volume edition from a street curb years ago and never got close to the end!
Oddzilla
"If one accepts that sadness is an adaptive, universal and normal emotion than there is no difficuly in thinking of depression as pathological sadness... depression is sadness out of control... mania could be malignant happiness...
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> Dr. Yutaka Ono in Toyko thinks of loss of interpersonal relationships as a key feature in causing depression...
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> My journey increased my conviction that depression is almost always related to sadness due to loss of some sort or another... but those that get depressed may be influenced by a genetic predispositon. How the depression is expressed, interpreted and treated can be very significantly affected by the prevailing culture...
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> Try to get psychotherapy as the preferred treatment; cognitive therapy would be a sensible choice, but if that does not work, or the depression is too severe then take the antidepressant drugs until therapy becomes possible...
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> And if possible, take the advice given at the end of Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy: "Be not idle."
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> - Lewis Wolpert, Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression, 1999, (Wolpert is a Professor of Biology as Applied to Medicine at University College, London)
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> Sante, encore!
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> dj
poster:Oddzilla
thread:42420
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000729/msgs/42526.html