Encountering Depression In-Depth : An existential-phenomenological approach to selfhood, depression, and psychiatric practice

Depression was formally designated as a psychiatric disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III), published in 1980, yet there remains no consensus with respect to depression’s underlying cause. Two broad models of causation have been historically used to characterize depression: biophysiological dysfunction or psychogenic processes. Interviews with psychiatric professionals reveal that this polarized causal view of depression pervades contemporary clinical attitudes, in terms of