psychotherapy Archives - From Insults To Respect From Insults To Respect

Leo Tolstoy’s Experience With Depression

Was It a Symptom of Mental Illness or Nourishment For His Creativity?

Welcome to From Insults to Respect. Today, let’s see if we can tie together some of the loose threads of my last post, which chronicled Joni Mitchell’s experience of depression. There we found that she explicitly rejected the idea that her experience indicated that she was mentally ill. Instead, she came to believe that, “Most of my best work came out of it. If you get rid of the…

Dr. Jeffrey Rubin December 9, 2017 11 min read

Mental Illness or Below Average Functioning?

A William James Perspectiveby Dr Jeffrey Rubin

“Good morning, Barbara,” I say, as my first counseling case walks into my office. I notice she looks a little angry. Upon sitting down, she declares, “I’m terribly frustrated. I’ve been depressed now for over two weeks, and I just can’t shake it!” It’s easy for me to empathize because I regularly have bouts of what I refer to as melancholy. A deep anguish comes…

Dr. Jeffrey Rubin September 16, 2015 14 min read