Melancholia: a Clinical Survey of Depressive States

Lewis, Aubrey

doi:10.1192/bjp.80.329.277

Cited by 409 publications

(139 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…28 Depression has also been interpreted as a communication designed to manipulate others into providing resources. 29,30 Following Lewis 27 and Meyer, 31 and citing studies of infants, Klerman concluded: "depression is clearly adaptive, especially for infant primates, including man," 32(p135) but, "My current view is that the adult depressive episode representsanattemptatadaptationthat has failed," 32(p143) presumably because help was not forthcoming.…”

Section: Possible Functions Of Low Mood and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is Depression an Adaptation?

Nesse

2000

Arch Gen Psychiatry

748

395

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any functions have been suggested for low mood or depression, including communicating a need for help, signaling yielding in a hierarchy conflict, fostering disengagement from commitments to unreachable goals, and regulating patterns of investment. A more comprehensive evolutionary explanation may emerge from attempts to identify how the characteristics of low mood increase an organism's ability to cope with the adaptive challenges characteristic of unpropitious situations in which effort to pursue a major goal will likely result in danger, loss, bodily damage, or wasted effort. In such situations, pessimism and lack of motivation may give a fitness advantage by inhibiting certain actions, especially futile or dangerous challenges to dominant figures, actions in the absence of a crucial resource or a viable plan, efforts that would damage the body, and actions that would disrupt a currently unsatisfactory major life enterprise when it might recover or the alternative is likely to be even worse. These hypotheses are consistent with considerable evidence and suggest specific tests.

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Section: Possible Functions Of Low Mood and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…24,25 While crying makes a strong link to adult depression, it is less clear that states of passive withdrawal benefit infants. 26 Lewis 27 suggested that depression in adults is a plea for help. This view remains prevalent, but the evidence is mixed.…”

Section: Possible Functions Of Low Mood and Depressionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is Depression an Adaptation?

Nesse

2000

Arch Gen Psychiatry

748

395

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The sad expression could complement this function by signaling losses to others in order to recruit help toward recovering from the misfortune. Related, one theory proposes that the chronic state of sadness found in depression functions in part to communicate losses (Fridlund, 1994) in order to solicit help from other people (Ekman, 2003;Lewis, 1934;Nesse, 2001;Watson & Andrews, 2002).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Communicative Function of Sad Facial Expressions

Reed

DeScioli

2017

Evol Psychol

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What are the communicative functions of sad facial expressions? Research shows that people feel sadness in response to losses but it's unclear whether sad expressions function to communicate losses to others and if so, what makes these signals credible. Here we use economic games to test the hypothesis that sad expressions lend credibility to claims of loss. Participants play the role of either a proposer or recipient in a game with a fictional backstory and real monetary payoffs. The proposers view a (fictional) video of the recipient's character displaying either a neutral or sad expression paired with a claim of loss. The proposer then decided how much money to give to the recipient. In three experiments, we test alternative theories by using situations in which the recipient's losses were uncertain (Experiment 1), the recipient's losses were certain (Experiment 2), or the recipient claims failed gains rather than losses (Experiment 3). Overall, we find that participants gave more money to recipients who displayed sad expressions compared to neutral expressions, but only under conditions of uncertain loss. This finding supports the hypothesis that sad expressions function to increase the credibility of claims of loss.

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“…The effect was one of depression with anxiety and a severe (psychotic) depression was suggested particularly in the first patient. Although Mayer-Gross et al (17) point out that misinterpretation of auditory stimuli are frequent in depressed patients, auditory hallucinations are uncommon and Lewis (16) found no examples in clear consciousness in his sixty-one cases in the absence of physiological disturbance. Noyes and Kolb (19) state, however, that although persistent auditory hallucinations suggest schizophrenia they are compatible with a diagnosis of depression if they represent projection of affective distress.…”

Section: Case Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%