Non-Fiction

mnhtnbb

(32,085 posts) Tue Sep 17, 2019, 11:31 AM Sep 2019

Just finished Johann Hari's book, Lost Connections

Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression--and the Unexpected Solutions.

For those of us who have been numbed, anxious, and depressed since November 2016, this book explains it--and a lot more. For those who have been led to believe depression is a malfunction in brain chemistry to be fixed by a drug, this book will be a real eye opener.

Hari sums up in his last chapter

One you understand that depression is to a significant degree a collective problem caused by something that's gone wrong in our culture, it becomes obvious that the solutions have to be--to a significant degree--collective, too.

From the dust cover blurb

Across the world, Hari found social scientists who were uncovering evidence that depression and anxiety are in fact caused by some crucial and growing problems with the way we live today. Hari's journey took him from a mind-blowing series of experiments in Baltimore, to an Amish community in Indiana, to an uprising in Berlin. Once he had uncovered nine real causes of these problems, they led him to scientists who are discovering very different solutions--ones that work.

Fascinating book. Incredibly well researched. Easy to read. I recommend it without reservation.

3 replies

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Just finished Johann Hari's book, Lost Connections (Original Post) mnhtnbb Sep 2019 OP

it is one thing to say that culture can make depression worse DonCoquixote Sep 2019 #1

" if only we were good people, all this would go away" mnhtnbb Sep 2019 #2

I've had my eye on that title for a while. PETRUS Sep 2019 #3

DonCoquixote

(13,713 posts)

1. it is one thing to say that culture can make depression worse

Reply to mnhtnbb (Original post)

Tue Sep 17, 2019, 12:43 PM

Sep 2019

Just as french soil makes wine grape grow, a bad culture can make problems grow, but what I resent is the idea that this feeds into the idea that depression is not a chemical, the old song that if only we were good people, all this would go away. That is exactly the sort of thinking that leads to utopias, which leads to dystopias once utopias clash with reality.

mnhtnbb

(32,085 posts)

2. " if only we were good people, all this would go away"

Reply to DonCoquixote (Reply #1)

Wed Sep 18, 2019, 01:51 AM

Sep 2019

That is not even close to where the author is headed with the book.

Really, I would encourage you to read the book. It is tremendously well researched. There is a lot of money--billions of dollars---at stake in the pharmaceutical industry promoting the concept that depression is only biological. The research says otherwise.

PETRUS

(3,678 posts)

3. I've had my eye on that title for a while.

Reply to mnhtnbb (Original post)

Wed Sep 18, 2019, 11:36 AM

Sep 2019

Glad you recommend it!

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