ABSTRACT
This book has argued that depression is not primarily about mood but the self, which is always a work in progress. It has complex causes: as well as possible genetic predisposition, there is an interaction between vulnerabilities arising out of early development (linked to stress) on the one hand, and stress triggers in adulthood on the other. But what is stress? It is not just about overload. It occurs when certain innate human needs are not being met: the fundamental biological, psychological, social, and spiritual requirements that Anthony Stevens has called “archetypal needs”. The existence of such needs is not merely hypothetical or speculative. On the contrary, there is substantial evidence from anthropology and ethology that “mental health depends upon the provision of physical and social environments capable of meeting the archetypal needs of the developing individual” (Stevens, 1997, p. 63). Accordingly, psychopathology results when there is “frustration of archetypal intent” (ibid., p. 62). Given that human beings have innate and therefore non-negotiable needs, this gives us a set of criteria to assess how far a particular socio-cultural environment is likely to generate chronic stress and, with it, depression.
