Mental Help Net

Perspectives - Vol. 6, No. 1 - Collective and Individual Depression: Is there a causal link?

William W. Bostock, Ph.D., School of Government, University of Tasmania Updated: Jan 1st 2001

Depression is a plain English word that describes a normal mental condition with which we are all familiar: a sense of inadequacy, despondency, lack of vitality, pessimism and sadness (Lincoln, 200: 1).

Even allowing for overuse of the word in everyday speech, depression can be a serious illness afflicting each year 19 million Americans, (Depression.com: 2000), or 8 percent of the British population (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 336).

In French the word ennui (worry, anxiety) carries some of the meaning of the word depression in English, leaving dépression for more severe situations, while dépression nerveuse is a nervous breakdown, a non-medical term in English meaning failure to cope psychologically with stress manifesting in incapacitating mental and emotional disturbance and frequently depression.

The normal lowering of spirits in response to life's events used to be called reactive depression, and the depression with no apparent precipitant was formerly called endogenous depression (Reber, 1995: 198), but this distinction is now replaced with a classification of (1) mild, moderate or severe (2) with or without biological features (3) with or without delusions or hallucinations (4) with or without manic episodes (bipolar/unipolar) (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 338).

Major depression is a very serious condition that can cause an inability to function or even suicide but can remain undiagnosed. Its etiology is not fully known but could be (1) biochemical: there are excess 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT2) receptors in the frontal context of the brains taken from suicide victims (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 336), (2) endocrinological: about 1/3 of depressed people do not have normal cortisol suppression in the dexamethasone test (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 336) or (3) psychodynamic: often actuated by the death of someone close or other forms of profound loss and is therefore a product of grief (Haig, 1990: 7-11). In the Freudian view, depression mirrors bereavement, but the loss can be an object and not simply a person (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 336). Another view is that learned helplessness, the hallmark of depression, results when punishment is received without being contingent upon the actions of the individual (Collier, Longmore and Harvey, 1991: 336). Depression can also be related to illness, pain, prolonged fatigue, and lack of human contact: deep areas of causality possibly best understood by imaginative artists, especially literary people who often analyse it under the term melancholia.

Depression among individuals is thus a vast world-wide problem but it is not untreatable. The major treatments are the self administration of mind-altering substances such as alcohol in its many forms and other substances such as marijuana (facetiously called by some "the people's Prozac"), beetle nut, belladonna, kava-kava and countless other agents whose effects range from the mildly narcotic to the highly lethal, as in the practices of glue and petrol sniffing. To these must be added the many pharmaceutical drugs administered by physicians particularly in Western countries to large numbers of their patients and electroconvulsive therapy. There are also many proven psychological techniques, from counseling to different types of psychotherapy, psychodrama, and psychoanalysis though this is strictly contraindicated if psychosis is suspected (Gillett, 1988: 148).

Collective Depression

With collective depression, the concept is much vaguer and even the subject of conjecture because of its association with the concept of a collective mind, as proposed by Le Bon in 1895 (LeBon, 1960), and developed by Durkheim as collective consciousness, (Durkheim 1964: 103n). Le Bon advanced a contagion theory that crowd behaviour takes over from individual behaviour through the infectious spread of emotion and action. This view has been contested by those who argue for an emergent-norms theory that sees group unanimity as an illusion created by common action based on prevailing norms (Robertson, 1987: 358-359). The methodological difficulty of assessing any concept of group mind has meant that it has fallen outside mainstream social science discussion, with the result that there is very little research currently being undertaken (Varvoglis, 1997: 1).

Medical scientists tend to leave open the question of collective mental states: for example Cawte states that a sick society is one with a high amount of psychiatric illness (Cawte, 1973: 365-379).

Without necessarily accepting the concept of a group mind, it is possible to state the collective depression can exist: it is when a large proportion of the members of a society are depressed, that is, are displaying signs of inadequacy, despondency, lack of vitality, pessimism, sadness and dependency upon substance ingestion. However, many authoritative writers do go further and assert the existence of the transcendent collective mental state. Michel Rocard, a former Prime Minister of France, for example has written of a 'dépression nerveuse collective' (collective nervous breakdown), presently confronting France, Europe and the world (Rocard, 2000: 1). José Maria Vigil has investigated the psychological well-being of the Latin American continent and diagnosed a state of collective depression, as having actually the same symptomatology as for individual depression: disappointment, loss of self esteem, self accusation, demobilisation, disorientation, depoliticisation, escape into spiritualism, loss of memory, withdrawal and psychosomatic problems (Vigil, 2000: 2).

The announcement by the Australian Government that it will create a national program to treat depression, as initiated by former premier of the State of Victoria, Jeff Kennett, has provoked discussion of whether the condition should be treated biologically or socially, but leaves open the question of its collective nature (Busch, 2000).

Collective depression can be related to national trauma, a shock felt by a very high percentage of a population. One such recent event is the death of Princess Diana in 1997 (Lincoln, 1997). Other causes of collective trauma are political assassinations, unprovoked acts of war, economic depressions, and technological disasters (Neal, 1996). All of these events can trigger collective depression, either in a direct way, or by a more insidious process of gradual accretion.

A Causal Relationship

Economic depression is a useful analogue for collective (mental) depression. Economic depression is defined as a severe and prolonged recession, where income, output, employment fall, sales and new projects decline, investment is reduced, interest rates fall, and deflation may occur, resulting in widespread bankruptcy and mass unemployment (Collier and Batty, 1993: 122). It is a collective phenomenon, passed by contagion, with each business closure bringing others in its train by negative multiplier effect. The contagion with emotions about future economic behaviour can also occur in other domains of behaviour. Kiev hypothesised a collective anxiety neurosis (Kiev, 1973). Collective fear has been isolated as a causal factor in genocide (Lake and Rothchild, 1996) and collective paranoia in ethnic cleansing (Kis, 1996).

It would seem comprehensible that depression can be passed between individuals by contagion, but does research give any confirmation? Forsyth reviewed the literature and concluded that "the bridge between social psychology and mental health can still not be traversed" (Forsyth,1996: 5), but suggested some areas of enquiry, such as the causal power of the group to change individuals when they become part of a group. Some of the group processes that require research are leadership, group development, social learning, self-insight, social influence and social provisions (Forsyth, 1996: 5).

Treating Collective Depression

Individual depression can be successfully treated by a range of therapies: pharmaceutical, electrical, psychological and counseling (Gillett, 1988). Collective depression, being a different order of problem, cannot be treated by therapies for individuals but can be treated by leadership, as observed by Forsyth (1996: 5). Vigil also notes that although the Latin American continent has a state of collective depression, there are individuals standing outside this mental state and therefore are in a position to assist in its removal.

Vigil refers those who remain firm, and impervious to dismay and depression "...our Latin American prophets, anonymous, hidden in the barrios, in the countryside, in the popular, feminist, indigenous, black, and labour movements ... "(Vigil, 1996: 3).

The function of leadership in treating collective depression is this to stand apart from the group, assess the obvious causes of the depression, and then to demonstrate that the situational factors can be changed, starting with small symbolic ways, if only with those few that are possible. But it must be noted that bad leadership can also be the cause of heightened collective depression. Hirschhorn confirms this proposition with the conclusion that poor leadership can have "toxic effects" on organisational motivation (Hirschhorn, 1990: 533).

As with individual depression, positive practical actions, no matter how seemingly small in comparison with the magnitude of the task, can lead to a lifting of the condition, as shown with the work of some members of a Peace Institute in a village in war torn Georgia (Rueffler, M., 2000). This linking process could be called "positive contagion", while attitudinal changes, including the use of humour, is another rich field of collective therapeutic action.

Conclusion

Individual depression is a widespread and at times severely disabling condition whose etiology is now becoming understood. Collective depression is well known and accepted in the field of economic behaviour but as a generalised mental state is contoversial due to the unresolved philosophical issue of the existence of a collective mind. Regardless of whether it is seen as an emergent phenomenon or simply a totality of individual depressions, collective depression does exist. As with individual depression, collective depression has its positive functional side, and can be treated with the therapeutic effect of small positive practical steps leading to the lifting of the sense of hopelessness. The incremental modification of collective depression will inevitably lead to the gradual lifting of individual depressions by the mechanism of 'reverse contagion'.

References

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