Early psychoanalytic writings on depression, or melancholia as it was once called, relate depression to the mourning process. John Bowlby viewed depression as a stage in the attachment process that comes into play when an attachment object is lost and needs to be replaced. When the person to whom we are attached goes away for longer than we expect, we first become angry. If the absence continues, as in the case of a break up, divorce, or death, anger is replaced by depression and mourning, before we eventually mentally let go of the person and start to look for someone new.
We experience depression after other losses as well. The loss of a job can lead through a similar process with a depression that stays with us until a new direction is found. I think also of midlife depressions were as adults we face major changes we need to make in our lives: finding a more meaningful career or vocation, letting go of a marriage that has been unhappy for years, etc.
In the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology researchers Carsten Wrosch and Gregory Miller scientifically study this observation and find support for the idea that some types of depression are part of a process for initiating change.
Abstract: Propositions derived from evolutionary biology and personality psychology suggest that depressive symptoms may serve adaptive functions by enabling people to adjust to unattainable goals, which in turn promotes quality of life. The authors tested this hypothesis in a longitudinal study of adolescent girls involving 4 waves of data collected over approximately 19 months. The authors expected that high baseline levels of depressive symptoms would facilitate the development of adolescents’ goal adjustment capacities (i.e., goal disengagement capacities and goal reengagement capacities). In addition, the authors expected that improvements in goal adjustment capacities over time would presage lower levels of subsequent depressive symptoms. Data from the first 3 waves produced results demonstrating that baseline levels of depressive symptoms predicted an increase in goal disengagement capacities over time but not in goal reengagement capacities. Moreover, increases in goal disengagement capacities predicted a reduction in subsequent depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that depressive symptomatology may serve adaptive functions by facilitating the development of goal disengagement capacities in adolescence.
I think this study is very interesting for the broad view it gives of depression and why it exists in our lives from time to time. In some schools of psychoanalysis feelings of depression are important signs from a self-regulating mind, or psyche. Instead of rejecting the depression, it can sometimes be helpful to embrace the depression and pay attention to the message it is trying to send. The depression we feel, might be an important part of helping us move on to better things in our lives.
