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.