Depression

In 'Depression in an evolutionary context' the biologist Lewis Wolpert argues that sadness and low mood are adaptive but severe or clinical depression is maladaptive. He suggests that clinical depression is malignant sadness, a normal emotion that becomes abnormal.

In 1999 Wolpert published a book about depression called 'Malignant Sadness'. This was inspired by his own experience of depression. In this book he makes a similar case for thinking about serious depression as a normal process that has become disordered.

In this book he reviews Bowlby's attachment theory, loss and it's relationship to depression. Wolpert also considers the value of Freud's ideas about bereavement and depression. Amazingly for a biologist he thinks there is some value in this. This may be due to his own experience of this mental disorder.

Depression in an evolutionary context

The link below is to a debate at the Anna Freud Centre : 'A talk or a tablet- what's best for depression'.

All in the Mind: Depression Debate

The vid below is a panel discussion of why sex and why men. The first voice is Wolpert's and he seems to think that there may have been a shift away from women selecting males to males selecting women. He thinks that this is a bad thing.