The following CNN mental health and science news video is about a depression study done by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It was added to the CNN website on September 23, 2012.
Wendy Walsh is a psychology professor who provides commentary for this story.
Walsh isn’t really providing any proof that there is a link between depression and prejudice. She uses words such as “maybe” a lot in her comments. And what qualifies as prejudice? I have been made fun of for being short. So do I qualify as a victim of prejudice? How about obesity? Anti-Semitism? There are endless types of prejudice in modern society. Walsh even says that self-prejudice could be a factor in the development of depression.
The basic idea seems to be that prejudice and depression have a common denominator - negative thought patterns. My point, though, is that very few people are not the victims of some kind of prejudice. I am Caucasian but was discriminated against when I was in Asia. Pretty sure I wasn’t depressed over it.
I am very skeptical of this kind of study. It has the danger of perpetuating this “victimhood” society that psychologists keep pushing on us. They seem to want to make everyone a victim. That keeps the mental health industry in business. I’m sure the pharmaceutical companies just love these studies, as well. Pretty soon, everyone will be a damn victim if we let psychologists convince us of this stuff. Is Mitt Romney also a victim because people are prejudiced against the super rich?
However, Wendy Walsh says there are some non-pharmaceutical things that are proven to fight depression. They include physical exercise, healthy family relationships, and altruism (could be either giving money or volunteering).
I understand where you’re coming from but you have to keep in mind that Wendy Walsh didn’t do the research or write the paper. Here’s a link to the actual paper if you’d like to read it:
(Link Removed By Admin)
First of all, you have a UW email address. Identify yourself if you want to leave a comment so we know who you are and what bias you may have in the study.
Second, your link was little more than a commercial offer. It only had an abstract and then an offer to purchase access if you wanted to read the whole study. That is not an appropriate use of the comments section on a blog.