title: Depression: adaptation to disruption and loss.
abstract: Assisting the depressed person to cope with disruption and loss and the experiences associated with each stage of his recovery is usually a long-term process involving concerted efforts to promote a restoration of self-worth, personal control, and organization. In this article the authors have attempted to elucidate the problem of depression as a clinical phenomenon, to explore its predisposition, and, through the use of a conceptual model, to discuss its psychodynamics. The processes involved in coping with disruption and loss -- processes which tend to be evoked repeatedly during recovery and resolution since each failure or delay encountered is experienced as another loss and disruption by the individual -- were described and illustrated schematically.
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000786:Anger; D002668:Child Rearing; D003717:Denial, Psychological; D003858:Dependency, Psychological; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006040:Goals; D006167:Guilt; D006801:Humans; D009769:Object Attachment; D011613:Psychotherapy; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological