Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression - and the Unexpected Solutions

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Introduction

Part 1, Chapters 1-4

Part 2, Chapters 5-8

Part 2, Chapters 9-13

Part 3, Chapters 14-17

Part 3, Chapters 18-21

Part 3, Chapter 22-Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Key Figures

Johann Hari

Johann Hari is a journalist whose other books include God Save The Queen?, a book that criticizes the British monarchy, and Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, a history of the War on Drugs in the United States. Hari’s mother was Scottish and his father was from Switzerland. In Lost Connections, he describes himself as a “strong proponent of skepticism and rationality” (267) and identifies as an “atheist” (272). He is recognized as being politically left-wing, and in 2009 he was identified as one of the top 100 influential leftists in Britain by the British newspaper The Telegraph (Dale, Iain and Brivati, Brian. “Top 100 most influential Left-wingers.” Telegraph.co.uk, 27 Sep. 2009).

Hari was diagnosed with clinical depression when he was 18. At some point in his childhood, he was traumatized when an adult physically assaulted him. During his career, Hari has written for high-profile publications in both Britain and the United States, including The Independent, the New Statesman, The Huffington Post, and the New York Times. In 2011, he was the subject of a plagiarism scandal, which forced him to return the Orwell Prize, an award for political writing.

Bromley-by-Bow Center

Hari holds up the Bromley-by-Bow Center, a psychiatric clinic in London, as an ideal example of how to treat depression. Doctor Sam Everington runs the center. Bromley-by-Bow follows tries to do more to address anxiety and depression than only prescribing chemical antidepressants. Everington’s approach includes trying to address the social causes behind depression: “When you went to see your doctor, you didn’t just get pills. You were prescribed one of over a hundred different ways to reconnect—with the people around you, with the society, and with values that truly matter” (234).

George Brown and Tirril Harris

Inspired by the suicide of a neighbor when he was a child, the psychologist George Brown thought previous studies on depression “were based either on personal anecdotes or on abstract theories” (57). Drawing on his previous training in anthropology, Brown collected data on the experiences and perspectives of women experiencing depression in London.

Brown’s study was supported by Tirril Harris, a therapist. According to Hari, the research conducted by Brown and Harris “proved that depression is—in fact—to a significant degree a problem not with your brain, but with your life” (62).

Throughout Lost Connections, Hari taps into the research and theories of many different medical doctors, psychologists, and social scientists. However, Brown and Harris provide a cornerstone for Hari’s overall argument about the need to view depression as something other than a malfunction of the brain. Their work was a significant look into “the social causes of depression” (183).

Dr. Irving Kirsch

Dr. Irving Kirsch’s arguments against the widespread use of antidepressants challenged Hari’s own views of depression. The work of Kirsch and one of his graduate students, Guy Sapirtstein, found that while SSRIs treat depression and anxiety better than a placebo, only 25% of patients were helped by the actual chemicals in SSRIs (27).

Further research by Irving and Guy suggested that drug companies had exaggerated the benefits of SSRIs. Hari claims he was personally invested in Kirsch’s work: At first “I scoffed; his claims seemed absurd” and “then I became angry” (23). Then he became convinced by Kirsch’s arguments. Kirsch was instrumental in changing Hari’s mind about antidepressants and inspiring him to write Lost Connections.

Kotti

Kotti is a historically impoverished, working-class district in Berlin. Its location right next to the Berlin Wall on the side of West Berlin meant the neighborhood was “semi-demolished” (200), an undesirable place to live. As a result, it became inhabited by marginalized individuals such as Turkish migrants, members of the Berlin gay community, and leftist activists. It was the neighborhood’s Turkish residents who “physically rebuilt” Kotti after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall (200).

Hari sees Kotti as an excellent example of community reconnection. Not only did the protestors at Kotti work together toward a shared goal; they formed personal connections among themselves despite their differences: “They had stopped being solely private. They had stopped sitting alone. They had made themselves public” (215).