An Escape from Clinical Depression

 
 
I   Introduction
II  Insight into clinical depression
        Negative feedback control
III Summary of insight
IV Author
 
Links: a guide to clinical depression
 
 
 

Summary of insight into clinical depression


This is a block diagram representing a summary of the insight into a cause of clinical depression. Each block representing a key idea. From the first block there is an arrow pointing to the second block and from the second block an arrow pointing to the third and so on through the six blocks. These arrows are meant to show the dependency of each block--save the first block--on the preceding block. From block five there is an arrow--labeled positive feedback--looping back to point at block number two. For further explanation of that loop, see footnote number 12 below. The information in the boxes is as follows. Box 1: Interaction between a mother--one who misinterprets and responds inappropriately to down regulating NFB signals--and her infant results in episodes which terminate with the mother's misperception of having been rejected. Box 2: After a sufficient number of these episodes, the mother's illusion of being rejected by her child becomes fixed. Box 3: Since everyone knows that all little boys love their mothers unless something is wrong, this mother has a problem--she knows that something is wrong with her unless... Box 4: The mother unconsciously solves this problem by placing the child in binds. As the child responds negatively, the mother punishes him. Box 5: As the child is unable to escape the tyranny of the binds, he becomes confused, angry, and ultimately aggressive with the mother. Since all can see that he is disturbed, the mother's problem is now solved. Box 6: With the passage of time, the hopelessness of the situation for the child becomes internalized and generalized into a world view in which any action--since it is doomed to failure--is by definition useless. He ceases to act with his previous vigor and begins to suffer the thought processes and other symptoms associated with depression.

 
12Just as a NFB signal is not a pejorative, a positive feedback signal--the information which travels in a positive feedback loop--is not an affirming message. It is rather a signal which causes some variable in a system to move away from its stable state or position. With regard to the above diagram, the aggression toward my mother serves as positive feedback by validating her delusion of rejection--thus helping perpetuate or sustain the unstable (unhealthy) maternal-child relations which resulted in my clinical depression.
 
 
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[ Introduction | Insight into clinical depression | Summary of insight |  Author | Links ]
 
Last revision: December 7, 2001
Escape from Clinical Depression
This page © Copyright 2001, Jon Eden
URL: http://EscapeFromDepression.com
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