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Depression: Purpose and Meaning Barbara A. Miriello, MFT Throughout history, depression has ravaged the lives of those who live in this very private and invisible hell. It has also been the crucible within which artistic, scientific, and spiritual greatness has been born. Depression has been the healing labor of new psychological life. It has been the point of breakthrough to greater consciousness. It has also been the breaking point that has led to suicide. The works of T. S. Eliot, Mozart, van Gogh, Berlioz were born of depression. Perhaps Abraham Lincoln would not have realized the error of slavery without the special entree into suffering delivered to him by life-long depression. St. John of the Cross perceived the unitive vision through the passageway of profound depression, which he termed, "the dark night of the soul." The issues and concerns which follow from such a common, complex, and contradictory phenomenon will take a long time for us to begin to unfold. How do we address a phenomenon that is both an illness and a normal process? How do we reconcile the consequences of pointless pain, suicide and waste with the contrasting potential outcomes of growth, compassion, great poetry, music, leadership and spiritual realization? There is a further complexity in attempting to define this issue. Not all non-productive suffering in depression is bio-chemical, but can also occur when there is not a strong biochemical component. The problems of masochistic suffering, depression due to learned helplessness, victim identification, passivity, etc. are also considered, as is the part depression plays in many other disease processes. The approach for healing is different in these situations. The fact that these contradictions have not been addressed in treatment programs constitutes a serious gap in our approach to depression. Although there are many treatment modalities available for depression including cognitive restructuring, anti-depressant medication, holistic interventions, catharsis methods, and general psychotherapy, little consideration is given to the purpose and meaning of the depression itself. As yet, no criteria exist for determining when the suffering of depression is non-productive and when it is of value and generative. Even worse, the very need for professionals and sufferers of depression to make these critical evaluations remains largely unrecognized. This awareness is needed to assure that the creative potential within a depression is brought to fruition. The practitioner must relate the interplay of causes and interventions back to the person at the center of them. Of greatest importance is the "who" within this painful and mystifying dance. Without such consideration, effective, humane and long-lasting treatment of depression is impossible. Further, without this awareness, the potential of a depression for being life-giving and expansive is lost. An individual's work within and through these depressive states can be tremendously valuable, both to the individual and to the greater good. Depression may be, for some, a legitimate response of the psyche to our profound disconnection to the earth, nature and our essential humanness. We run a dangerous risk in pathologizing the responses of despair and outrage, fear and hopelessness. If such authentic responses to very real nuclear or environmental threats are viewed as "illness", then we are making a serious and lethal error. Such responses are entirely appropriate, both in their focus and in magnitude. To pathologize these responses is, by default, to declare healthy, the very common state of being numb. The profound psychic numbing so widely employed, which allows us to avoid these warning signals, is not a state of mental health. Most of these anguished responses to our disconnectedness are, of course, intertwined with vestiges of personal pain and distortion, which must be healed. This does not, however, render the perceptions invalid. This legitimate outrage to the fragmentation of modern life must not be reductively pathologized, for we will lose the impetus to repair our broken relationship to the earth itself. Hidden within our despair and grief lies our creative and preservative passion. Barbara A. Miriello, MFT Center for Inner Work 5100 Marlborough Drive San Diego, California, USA 92116 619-584-1725 Office 619-979-6390 Page 619-582-2697 Facsimile |
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