ABSTRACT
The diagnostic categories of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) are expanded psychotheologically in a model which includes not only the biological and psychological symptoms but also those emerging in the dimensions of personal meaning and continued being. Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy assists in elucidating what a crisis of meaning looks like clinically and Paul Tillich's formulation of the anxiety of non-being is adapted for describing the ontological crisis in MDD. While the boundary between nature and nurture in the diagnosis and treatment of MDD is admittedly permeable, nurture will be assumed to take precedence in the development of an expanded paradigm for defining and diagnosing MDD. In addition to understanding the medical and psychological dimensions of MDD and their consequences, Frankl's Logotherapy has gone further to ask about the individual's crisis of personal meaning and how that may be contributing to or ultimately causing a severe depression.
