Appendix (4): Good Mood: The New Psychology of Overcoming Depression

Good Mood

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An Integrated Cognitive Theory of Depression

Lincoln Pashute

cont.

The Theory

A negative self-comparison is the last link in the causal chain leading to sadness and depression. It is the "common pathway," in medical parlance. You feel sad when a) you compare your actual situation with some "benchmark" hypothetical situation, and the comparison appears negative; and b) you think you are helpless to do anything about it. This is the whole of the theory. The theory does not encompass the antecedent causes of a person having a propensity to make negative self-comparisons or to feel helpless to alter her/his life situation.

1. The "actual" state in a self-comparison is what you perceive it to be, rather than what it "really" is.2 And a person's perceptions may be systematically biased to make the comparisons negative.

2. The "benchmark" situation may be of many sorts:

The benchmark situation may be one that you were accustomed to and liked, but which no longer exists. This is the case, for example, after the death of a loved one; the consequent grief-sadness arises from comparing the situation of bereavement with the situation of the loved one being alive.
The benchmark situation may be something that you expected to happen but that did not materialize, for example, a pregnancy you expected to yield a child but which ended in miscarriage, or the children you expected to raise but never were able to have.
The benchmark may be a hoped-for event, a hoped-for son after three daughters that turns out to be another daughter, or an essay that you hope will affect many people's lives for the good but that languishes unread in your bottom drawer.
The benchmark may be something you feel you are obligated to do but are not doing, for example, supporting your aged parents.
The benchmark may also be the achievement of a goal you aspired to and aimed at but failed to reach, for example, quitting smoking, or teaching a retarded child to read.

The expectations or demands of others may also enter into the benchmark situation. And, of course, the benchmark state may contain more than one of these overlapping elements.

3. The comparison can be written formally as:

Mood=(Perceived state of oneself) (Hypothetical benchmark state)

This ratio bears a resemblance to William James' formula for self-esteem, but it is rather different in content.

If the numerator in the Mood Ratio is low compared to the denominator--a state of affairs which I'll call a Rotten Ratio-- your mood will be bad. If on the contrary the numerator is high compared to the denominator--a state which I'll call a Rosy Ratio--your mood will be good. If the ratio is Rotten and you feel helpless to change it, you will feel sad. Eventually you will be depressed if a Rotten Ratio and a helpless attitude continue to dominate your thinking.

The comparison you make at a given moment may concern any one of many possible personal characteristics-- occupational success, personal relationships, state of health, or morality, for just a few examples. Or you may compare yourself on several different characteristics from time to time. If the bulk of self-comparison thoughts are negative over a sustained period of time, and you feel helpless to change them, you will be depressed.

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Only this framework makes sense of such cases as the person who is poor in the world's goods but nevertheless is happy, and the person who "has everything" but is miserable; not only do their actual situations affect their feelings, but also the benchmark comparisons they set up for themselves.

The sense of loss, which often is associated with the onset of depression, also can be seen as a negative self-comparison -- a comparison between the way things were before the loss, and the way they are after the loss. A person who never had a fortune does not experience the loss of a fortune in a stock market crash and therefore cannot suffer grief and depression from losing it. Losses that are irreversible, such as the death of a loved one, are particularly saddening because you are helpless to do anything about the comparison. But the concept of comparisons is a more fundamental logical element in thought processes than is loss, and therefore it is a more powerful engine of analysis and treatment.

The key element for understanding and dealing with depression, then, is the negative comparison between one's actual state and one's benchmark hypothetical situation, together with the attitude of helplessness as well as the conditions that lead a person to make such comparisons frequently and acutely.

Hints of the self-comparison concept are common in the literature. For example, Beck remarks that "the repeated recognition of a gap between what a person expects and what he receives from an important interpersonal relationship, from his career, or from other activities, may topple him into a depression" (Beck, 1976, p. 108) and "The tendency to compare oneself with others further lowers self-esteem" (p. 113). But Beck does not center his analysis on the self-comparisons. The systematic development of this idea which constitutes the new approach offered here.

Self-comparison is the link between cognition and emotion -- that is, between what you think and what you feel. A hoary old joke illuminates the nature of the mechanism: A salesman is a person with a shine on his shoes, a a smile on his face, and a lousy territory. To illustrate with a light touch, let us explore the cognitive and emotional possibilities for a saleswoman with a lousy territory.

You might first think: I'm more entitled to that territory than Charley is. You then feel anger, perhaps toward the boss who favored Charley. If your anger focuses instead on the person who has the other territory, the pattern is called envy.

But you might also think: I can, and will, work hard and sell so much much that the boss will give me a better territory. In that state of mind you simply feel a mobilization of your human resources toward attaining the object of the comparison.

Or instead you might think: There is no way that I can ever do anything that will get me a better territory, because Charley and other people sell better than I do. Or you think that lousy territories are always given to women. If so, you feel sad and worthless, the pattern of depression, because you have no hope of improving your situation.

You might think: No, I probably can't improve the situation. But maybe these incredible efforts I'm making will get me out of this. In that case, you are likely to feel anxiety mixed with depression.

Or you may think: I only have this lousy territory another week, after which I move to a terrific territory. Now you are shifting the comparison in your mind from a) your versus another's territory, to b) your territory now versus your territory next week. The latter comparison is pleasant and not consistent with depression.

Or still another possible line of thought: No one else could put up with such a lousy territory and still make any sales at all. Now you are shifting from a) the comparison of territories, to b) the comparison of your strength with that of other people. Now you feel pride, and not depression.

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