Psychological Explanations For Depression

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Purely physiological explanations for mental illnesses tend toward assuming that what happens in the chemistry of the brain should replace what is sometimes called the “mind.” But psychological explanations of depression emphasize that the mind and body are distinct. Though psychologists usually recognize the affect of the brain on the mind, they tend to emphasize personal experiences, ways of thinking and learned behavior. Many of the proposed psychological causes for depression could also be explained or understood in terms of underlying spiritual issues. We will consider this below, but in this section the terms are laid out as they are explained by secular psychologists. Psychoanalytical Explanations. Sigmund Freud, perhaps more than anyone else, popularized psychological causes of mental illnesses and developed the idea of a mind-body split. Though many of his methods are no longer followed, his affect on psychological studies was profound. Psychoanalysis is the study of previous experiences, typically childhood traumas, that affect a person’s present psychology. Major losses, whether perceived or actual, such as the loss of a parent through death, separation, or rejection are thought to make one more likely to develop depression later in life. If a person does not discover effective ways to deal with such loss early on, he or she is more likely to fall into depression when confronted with another major loss. Freud emphasized the individual’s loss of self-esteem in depression. The psychoanalytic view suggests that low self esteem is often the result of anger inward when experiencing loss. The individual does not learn to express his or her anger or believes that it is wrong to do so and thus internalize it, destroying themselves. Cognitive Theories of Depression. The cognitive view of depression emphasizes the way that people think about
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