The Interactional Nature of Depression: Advances in Interpersonal Approaches

Even when theorists, researchers and therapists themselves forget, depressed people will say that their involvement in interpersonal relationships matter: relationships perceived as good buffer them from depression, and relationships perceived as bad contribute to and maintain their depression. Depressed individuals frequently know that they are in a "Catch 22" dilemma of needing the very people whom their symptoms disaffect. Processes such as "excessive reassurance seeking" and "negative feedback seeking" may be involved in the cycle of depression. Depressed individuals may also realize that their therapy needs to focus on improving the nature of their relationships. "The Interactional Nature of Depression" brings together interpersonal, cognitive, stress and coping, developmental, and social psychology perspectives into a more complex and more comprehensive approach to depression theory and research. In the book's bold and substantive postscript, co-editor James C. Coyne offers some caveats regarding the limitations of certain lines of research. Moreover, he calls for alternative formats and therapeutic strategies for intervening directly in the relationships of depressed individuals, enlisting the help of whoever in the individual's environment is willing to become involved.

Table of Contents:
On the Interpersonal Nature of Depression - Overview and Synthesis; The Emergence of an Interpersonal Approach to Depression; Social Context and Depression - an Integrative Stress and Coping Framework; Interpersonal and Cognitive Pathways into the Origins of Attributional Style - a Developmental Perspective; Loneliness, Shyness and Depression - the Aetiology and Interrelationships of Everyday Problems in Living; Schematic and Interpersonal Conceptualizations of Depression - an Integration; Vulnerable Self-Esteem and Social Processes in Depression - Toward an Interpersonal Model of Self-Esteem Regulation; Striving for Confirmation - the Role of Self-Verification in Depression; Silencing the Self - Inner Dialogues and Outer Realities; Sociophysiology and Depression; Marital Discord and Depression - Exploring the Potential of Attachment Theory to Guide Integrative Clinical Intervention; Depressed Parents and Family Functioning - Interpersonal Effects and Children's Functioning and Development; A Social-Cognitive Model of Interpersonal Processes in Depression; Thinking Interactionally About Depression - a Radical Restatement.