Undoing Depression : What Therapy Doesn't Teach You and Medication Can't Give You by Richard O'Connor PhD

This is probably one of the more important books of my life.

The author himself is a depressive, and speaks with authority, as far as the topic allows authority.

There is not much new in the book, but what there is is a very useful synthesis. I find his statement that depression is not a state of sadness, but a state of supressed emotion one of best 'theoretical' explanations I've seen.

The last part of the book contains twelve principles, as a Program to Recovery:

1. Feel Your Feelings
2. Noting Comes Out of the Blue
3. Challenge Depressed Thinking
4. Establish Priorities
5. Communicate Directly
6. Take Care of Your Self
7. Take, and Expect, Responsibility
8. Look for Heroes
9. Be Generous
10. Cultivate Intimacy
11. Practice Detachment
12. Get Help When You Need It

I would like to emphasise that this book is a guide to recovery, rather than a guide for getting well. If you're depressed, get a professional to help you. Once you're out of the hole, this book will show you how to change so that you don't fall into the blackness again.

What all this has made me realize is that therapy — and probably medication — doesn't really work for the reasons professionals think it does...
So it doesn't matter how you get better, as long as you get better...
A good psychotherapy is in essence a creation, a change in the patient's way of being, crafted by the patient and the therapist in mutual process. For many patients it may be their first creative effort since kindergarten.