ISBN: 9781933392714 Year Added to Catalog: 2007 Book Format: Paperback Dimensions: 6 x 9 Number of Pages: 224 Book Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Old ISBN: 1933392711 Release Date: October 15, 2007
Also in Politics & Social Justice
Surviving America's Depression Epidemic
How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy
Levine is a clinical psychologist whose message, which he first explored in
2003’s Commonsense Rebellion, is that American society is a pathological
society, mired in “an extremist consumer culture” that breeds depression as a
matter of course (he points to the American Psychological Association’s 1998
statement that the U.S. was suffering “ten to twenty times as much” depression
as it was 50 years before). Levine attributes this to three consumerism-driven
factors: the failure of the medical profession to account for “societal and
cultural sources for despair”; the“psycho-pharmaceutical complex” that pushes
health practitioners to prescribe drugs; and therapists’ determination not to
stray from the standardized counseling rulebook. The solution Levine uses in his
own practice recognizes that periods of depression can be a “natural part of the
human condition” and “potential sources for motivation and discovery,” and
combines humor and practical advice to instill the self-acceptance and
self-release that will help people pull themselves clear and find “life beyond
self.” Though the toppling of consumer society advocated in a final section on
“Public Passion and Reclaiming Community” may not be entirely realistic
(especially for the lone self-helper), Levine’s holistic approach, bolstered by
plenty of scholarship and popular literary references, will give depression
patients a useful big-picture perspective. (Oct)
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