In this provocative and path-breaking distillation of a career spent working with individuals seeking help with mood and motivation, Eric Maisel reveals the implications of one of the era’s most dramatic cultural shifts. In recent decades, much of the unhappiness inherent in the human condition has been monetized into the disease of depression and related "disorders." Maisel persuasively critiques this sickness model and prescribes a potent new approach that updates the best ideas of modern psychology. The result is a revolutionary reimagining of life’s difficulties and a liberating model of self-care that optimizes our innate human ability to create meaning and seize opportunity — in any circumstance.
{"itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.9,"ASIN":"1608680207","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.32,"ASIN":"157731932X","isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":12.12,"ASIN":"1577316045","isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"1608680207::AoOMpvniAAaT3T6BHvzU4RZMPBbK4kEjitYULepzt9KR8mvxmTsEQ%2Fh%2FObjXMuDkv9%2FcVk3LG241aaM4GMAkB15yDLmtKrJlANs1pGNGYAS8G4GETLLflg%3D%3D,157731932X::IyPTO5hHsx3pIhDBrBLYHHIDEfd2dA0E2pmyGuCFPSYm%2FvTFM15hkPOWMw3pZQOJ%2FA2RDlMMBIqjTzVan%2F3kLZxC6zATdYZ3wz9eCz2XwDkzh1Qtod%2FwbA%3D%3D,1577316045::Ca6HKXNNccdGLGiJHRWgoKhUHI2VasenchnlJilYIY3mOAJqGVUXhBvFYUeRzdda5NEmoTm98nQuy4%2FWQqZBW1Q%2F%2BZC5KmwrMR7wczhDIsc%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"currenyCode":"USD","shippingDetails":{"xz":"same","yz":"same","xy":"same","xyz":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["add to wishlist","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items"]}}
“Raises fundamental questions about the differences between depressive mental disorder and normal sadness...A valuable resource.” — Allan V. Horwitz, author of Creating Mental Illness
“In this riveting deconstruction of the ‘mental health industry,’ Eric Maisel provides essential tools to address human despair. Although it will provoke controversy, Rethinking Depression is one of the most perceptive and accessible guides to life fulfillment that I have ever read.” — Kirk Schneider, PhD, coauthor of Existential-Humanistic Therapy and author of Awakening to Awe
“Rethinking Depression is an important and timely book that busts numerous myths about why people have the so-called mental illness of depression. Eric Maisel gives readers a path and a language that will help them shine a light on the dark side of unhappiness and move toward a meaningful, self-directed life.” — Richard Bargdill, membership chair and executive board member, Society for Humanistic Psychology
“An uplifting and practical guide to life and how to live it better. Eric Maisel has made existential thinking accessible to all those who want to live in a more deliberate and engaged fashion.” — Emmy van Deurzen, principal, New School of Psychotherapy and Counseling, London, and author of Psychotherapy and the Quest for Happiness
Product Details
Paperback: 248 pages
Publisher: New World Library; Original edition (February 14, 2012)
Eric Maisel, Ph.D., widely regarded as America's foremost creativity coach, is the author of more than 40 books. His titles include Making Your Creative Mark, Coaching the Artist Within, The Van Gogh Blues, Fearless Creating, Mastering Creative Anxiety, Creativity for Life, A Writer's Paris, A Writer's San Francisco, and many others.
In addition to training creativity coaches, leading workshops nationally and internationally, and maintaining an individual creativity coaching practice, Dr. Maisel is in the forefront of the movement to rethink mental health. He writes the Rethinking Psychology blog for Psychology Today and among his books in this area are Rethinking Depression and Natural Psychology: the New Psychology of Meaning.
Dr. Maisel leads Deep Writing workshops at workshop centers like Esalen, Kripalu, Omega, Hollyhock and Rowe and in locales like San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, Prague and Rome. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, he has conducted hundreds of interviews, and his print column "Coaching the Artist Within" appears monthly in Professional Artist Magazine.
Dr. Maisel is also interested in the challenges that smart people face. His forthcoming book Why Smart People Hurt appears from Conari Press Fall of 2013. Dr. Maisel's websites are www.ericmaisel.com and www.naturalpsychology.net. He can be contacted at ericmaisel@hotmail.com.
***** The author's new book on depression is for those readers who would like to have another approach to depression to supplement or replace traditional treatments. The first part of the book describes how much (but not all, of course) of what we call depression today is actually unhappiness. The second 80% of the book discusses the author's approach to alleviating unhappiness, which I would describe as not finding meaning but creating meaning--and he tells you how to do this via complete instructions. The instructions are from an existential approach and involve creating a personal morning meaning practice; so the approach is not spiritual per se, but focused on relating to your own inner wisdom and values. The author includes many related practicalities, such as how to deal with crises in meaning.
The book contains notes and an index.
I really liked this book and think that everyone--no matter what your beliefs about or your approach to depression or your approach to general unhappiness--can benefit from reading it. Even if you have a spiritual practice already (as I do), the existential approach of creating meaning doesn't necessarily conflict with that. You can still learn a lot from reading this book. I know I did.
I was fortunate to get an advance copy of Eric Maisel's new book. I've been a psychotherapist for more than 40 years and treat depression every day. I've long come to see that our old way of looking at "mental illness" is totally inadequate. We put more and more people on drugs while ignoring the underlying problems that feed our feelings of despair and hopelessness. Maisel's book shows us why the old system does not work well and why depression continues to rise despite our efforts to help people. But more importantly he gives us practical guidance on how to create a life of meaning that can make depression a thing of the past.
If you are concerned about mental illness in your own life or you work with people who are suffering, you will find this book to be a breath of fresh air and hope.
"Rethinking Depression" is what the title suggests. Depression is a series of errors in living that pile up as you try to relive them each day. Antidepressants are not the answer as they are only crutches by which we can feel better. Eliminating depression takes time and self recognition of our place in life not life's place in us. Personal responsibility is what I take away from the text.
I work as a Peer Counselor with most of my clients claiming depression. Yet when we start to talk most of their thoughts are confused and need some form of visualization on their part. As they begin to visualize their values and actions they begin to heal. Antidepressants cannot do this.
The book is worth reading if only for a different look at depression.
What a great reminder to stop labeling every down mood as "depression!" That all by itself is worth the price of the book. I've dog eared most pages of this book for its motivating and energizing tidbits. For someone who's suffered depression much of my life, this book is empowering and optimistic!
I was glued to the pages of this book. I found the book extremely original, witty, and absolutely brilliant. The author, Eric Maisel suggests his theory on the multibillion dollar industry of mental health disorders and questions mainstream notions of this disorder. But she does so in a way that's sensitive to the reader. I would recommend this book to ANYONE who is interested in the field or who is exposed to the notions of mental disorders, which is pretty much, everyone, in Western Cultural.
While I am a great fan of Eric Maisel's work on creativity, I found his argument about looking at depression differently less than convincing. That is not to say that it won't help some people.
