Depression: An Emotion Not A Disease

by Aine Tubridy, Aine Tubridy

Depression is an emotion, just like fear, anger or love. It is the imprint felt after a stressful or traumatic experience. Depression is natural. It is not a disease process reflecting a change in brain chemistry. The sick brain model of depression is a hideous and terrifying concept, as it turns us into cogs in a machine where, if we find the going difficult and want to disengage, we are prescribed an emotional painkiller and advised to carry on regardless. Chemically-induced slavery has arrived. This book offers hope and understanding, and effective ways to create a new identity.

298 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2005

Reviews

[Conor Maguire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would guess that this book was hastily written and given little in the way of editorial insight. The arguments are weak, anecdotal, and lacking in critical engagement with its central thesis. There is no shortage of argumentation to be drawn on to support the titular argument (Foucault, Szasz, Laing), but unfortunately in propping up his position, Corry appeals only to individual case histories and meandering paeans to individual resilience.

Of course it is impossible to feel any ill will towards the author, having been such a iconoclast in his day and having worked so thanklessly to combat the repression, sadism, and authoritarianism that characterises modern psychiatry. If anything, going straight for the jugular and exposing the barbarism of the psychiatric cult might have served the book better, but Christ knows he would have ended up on the sharp end of yet another egomaniacal libel case...

[Maolíosa Chléirigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth reading