The Road Less Traveled
    A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth
M. Scott Peck, M.D.

The Healthiness of Depression

- Period of psychotherapy is period of intensive growth
    - Patient may undergo more changes than some people experience in a lifetime
    - Act of deciding to seek psychiatric attention represents giving up of self-image "I'm OK"
- Depression
    - Feeling associated with giving up something loved
    - Normal and basically healthy phenomenon
        - Because giving up or loss of the old self is an integral part of the process of mental and spiritual growth
- Growth process
    - Leading reson for seeking help is depression
    - Therapist's job is to help patient complete growth process that he/she has already begun.
    - Process of growing and giving up is begun on unconscious level--depression
    - This is because unconscious knows that "the way things used to be" is no longer adequate
    - Unconscious is one step ahead of conscious: this is normal
- During successful evolving lifetime, many things must be given up:
    - Dependency of childhood
    - "Freedom" of uncommitment
    - Fantasy of immortality
    - Ultimately, the self and life itself

Depression is a normal and healthy phenomenon.    It signals that a person is unhappy with losing, or giving up something.    Since giving up is a natural part of the growth process, we must consciously deal with what it is that we are giving up and come to accept it.