DEPRESSION AND THE BODY: The Biological Basis of Faith and Reality

While the initial chapters here deal with depression in the most general terms (the high-low moodswing; the negativism and anomie) with one specific contention you may not altogether go along with (""the loss of a mother is. . . the predisposing cause of every depression"") -- the main part of the discussion further (cf. his other books) advances Dr. Lowen's psycho(Freud)somatic(Reich) approach to mental illness and relief thereof via bioenergetic exercises. These will help one to become ""grounded"" in reality and also to relax and surrender, and also to breathe, kick and scream primally. Dr. Lowen has predated most of the more voguish encounter movements while paralleling them. Analysis plus the more physical approach are recommended (not drugs, etc.) in dealing with depressions also attributed to our general loss of faith. The doctor writes straightforwardly and categorically; ""the growing incidence of homosexuality. . . can always be traced to a seductive parent"" and ""the single factor most responsible for the disruption of the family is the automobile"" eliding convictions and quite arbitrary assumptions. . . . But then most of this discussion deals in an unverifiable sphere where one man's faith becomes another man's reality.