The depressive situation

Abstract

From a naturalistic perspective on mental illness, depression is often described in terms of biological dysfunctions, while a normative perspective emphasizes the lived experience of depression as a harmful condition. The paper relates a conceptual analysis of “depressive situation” to an analysis of the lived experience of depression. As such, it predominantly aims to specify depression as a harmful condition in lights of normative perspective on mental disorder, but partially refers to empirical research, i.e., naturalistic perspective on depression, to exemplarily stress on the methodological merits and limits of relating phenomenological considerations closer to empirical research. The depressive situation is further specified with an examination of the evaluative dynamics by which individuals meaningfully relate to themselves, others and the world. These evaluative dynamics emerge out of the interplay of pre-reflective and reflective processes, which are significantly altered in depression. Such alterations of the evaluative structure are inextricably intertwined with significant distortions of practical sense in depression. From a phenomenological perspective, these distortions of practical sense show in characteristic experiences of evaluative incoherence and impairments of agency. Finally, this paper focuses on an examination of “evaluative incapacity,” which has the integrative potential to capture a range of typical changes of meaningful relatedness that determine the depressive situation.

Dietary Supplementation of Hericium erinaceus Increases Mossy Fiber‐CA3 Hippocampal Neurotransmission and Recognition Memory in Wild‐Type Mice

“…A low level of exploratory activity towards novelty is interpreted as a sign of anxiety-like behaviour, whereas a high level reflects less anxiety [34]. Furthermore, reduced novelty-seeking and, in turn, increased neophobia can be considered core symptoms of depression; these behaviours are closely related to rigid evaluative patterns and reduced coping flexibility that also characterize the depressive state [35–38]. A recently published paper described the reduction of depression and anxiety by 4 weeks' intake of H. erinaceus dietary supplementation in 30 female subjects [5].…”

Moody habitus: Bourdieu with existential feelings

“…They have recognized the need to understand the “practical sense” in its social context and they write exactly about moods. However, instead of moods, they study “existential feelings” or “bodily background feelings” (Jacobs, ; Fuchs, ; Ratcliffe, ; Slaby, ; Stephan, ; see also Tellenbach, , on the melancholic habitus). Ratcliffe () developed this concept in order to avoid some of the problems that the term mood carries along in its various, practical and academic uses.…”

Affective affordances and psychopathology

“…These body-schematic disturbances harbor a correlative world-directed aspect as well (Jacobs 2013). Not only do these disturbances diminish the individual's affordance space: "I feel very disconnected to the world, as if I'm floating, not quite there or visible to others" (Benson, Gibson, Brand 2013, p. 65).…”