I just watched and wanted to comment on this Ted Talk by Johann Hari.
I remember hearing this speaker on Sam Harris’s podcast months ago and feeling unusually engaged. I think Mr Hari is spot on and articulates well that the mental/emotional states that we have come to call depression and anxiety largely stem from unmet psychological and social needs, that are less visible than physical and material needs. They are also thwarted by many aspects of modern life. Massive numbers of people from developed/wealthy countries are waking up to the pain that social voids can create. We are being forced to better understand, legitimize, and acknowledge these needs – such as human connection, empathy, and belonging – now that we are finding them in such short supply in modern work and personal lives. This is similar to how the recognition that many modern foods are nutritionally poor leads to a rigorous study of human nutritional needs, as well as more nutritious food production.
The critique of the chemical imbalance theory as a sole (or even foundational) explanation for depression and anxiety in this video is apt, and I’d even say courageous, given it’s prominence in today’s thinking. But based on the standing ovation at the end of this talk, I would say it is a welcome conversation now. Mr Hari points out that the chemical imbalance theory subtly implies that depression “makes no sense”. I would add that it can also (perhaps not so subtly) make “sense” of depression by attributing it to the person’s genetic flaws. In other words, it substitutes a moral defectiveness for a biological defectiveness. It does not assume fault or blame in a person’s choices or free will, as some view depression (“they just do it to themselves”), but I think it does attribute fault/blame to a person’s body (specifically, their brain chemistry), which is better than moral judgement, but still so often harmful. The last thing someone feeling depressed needs is to being told, directly or indirectly, that their legitimate sense of emptiness is just a defective brain problem. Especially if this isn’t actually what is really going on.
We wouldn’t tell someone that was suffering from nutritional deficiencies from a poor diet that their bodies were flawed — we would educate them on what nutritional needs aren’t being met and work to help them find ways to meet those needs. And we should also validate that, because of factors such as poor soil quality, industrial agriculture, and overabundance of cheap/harmful junk food, it’s not easy to eat optimally in modern life, and many people are suffering from the same deficiencies.
Social and psychological needs are not made of matter, and thus generally harder to see and measure than biomedical and nutritional needs. The data and feedback involved in understanding psycho-social needs is highly subjective and largely non-verbal. And perhaps the severe deficiencies and their symptoms are newer than biological/medical ones, due to very recent developments such as social media and other technological transformations to our everyday lives. But we are steadily moving towards understanding psychological pain in a more compassionate and accurate light, one that doesn’t blame our brains and bodies but compassionately explains our pain in terms of unmet needs from a modern and artificial way of life that so often does not contain the socio-emotional “nutrients” that we all need.