Les Jones: Depression vs. Unhappiness

July 12, 2005

Misc > Depression vs. Unhappiness

Via Kevin Baker, in Theodore Dalrymple's The Frivolity of Evil:

There is something to be said here about the word "depression," which has almost entirely eliminated the word and even the concept of unhappiness from modern life. Of the thousands of patients I have seen, only two or three have ever claimed to be unhappy: all the rest have said that they were depressed. This semantic shift is deeply significant, for it implies that dissatisfaction with life is itself pathological, a medical condition, which it is the responsibility of the doctor to alleviate by medical means. Everyone has a right to health; depression is unhealthy; therefore everyone has a right to be happy (the opposite of being depressed). This idea in turn implies that one's state of mind, or one's mood, is or should be independent of the way that one lives one's life, a belief that must deprive human existence of all meaning, radically disconnecting reward from conduct.

Posted by lesjones

Comments

Hell of an observation, isn't it?

Posted by: Kevin Baker at July 12, 2005

It really is. Everyone talks like a psychologist instead of a human being now - we're depressed and stressed instead of unhapy and mad. It's like we're describing lab rats.

Posted by: Les Jones at July 12, 2005

this makes me sad

Posted by: cube at July 13, 2005

Interesting--I'm fighting a battle with my doctor regarding antidepressants right now. He thinks I'm depressed, but I think I'm profoundly unhappy about several aspects of my life.
Don't tell me I'm depressed--it undermines the legitimacy of my dissatisfaction with the state of my life, my gender, my nation, and my world.
I hate his diagnosis, because it is so dissmissive.

Posted by: hmph at April 25, 2006

YES! I agree, Les.. and Cube. It is a sad (pun intended) commentary that we are not supposed to be unhappy about the atrocities that happen in our lives today. Have a teenager who is giving you hell? You're stressed out... not mad at the ungrateful little wretch. Have a husband who cheats or flirts? Hey, you aren't hurt and heartbroken, you're paranoid and controlling. Lose your job through no possible fault of your own? It must have been because you were "negative," not disheartened. HUH? Somebody please give us back sensible paradigms?

Posted by: Elsbeth at April 07, 2007

Is this really an argument about semantics? Unhappiness is a symptom of depression but long term unhappiness because of a specific cause e.g. death of a spouse can lead to depression. Does it matter if it's called unhappiness or depression? Whatever you call it the patient feels miserable enough to consult the medical profession. Which is what every medical article be, it on a web site or in a magazine, advises. Whatever you want to call it depression or unhappiness shouldn’t the patient get any available treatment that helps.

Posted by: AlanT Trent at March 13, 2008