Hi Brendan

What comes to mind on reading your last post is your attempt to somehow split the causation of depression between the person and the field (or not just your attempt but that such perspectives exist in research and various modailities).

Some would argue that you cannot seperate out the person NOR the field as it is the whole phenomenon we are dealing with. This is similar to what Bohr argued for with quantum physics... we can only deal with the whole quantum phenomenon and not the individual parts.

At the same time there are sub fields and these effect each individual differently. This is evidenced in the research on indentical twins reared apart. Fifty percent of indentical twins reared apart have both twins develop schizophrenia but in the other fifty percent only one twin does. Hence the different sub fields of each twin makes a difference.

I am also reminded of the text book " A Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and Nothings Changed" in reference to your sense that perhaps you are being cynical... I think this is not a cynical perspective I hear but a challenging perspective and this is needed, particularly in psychotherapy.

Finally I am reminded of the Buddha and suffering... its not that suffering changes as we become aware or enlightened its more our perspective changes (I would argue both change!)

So here are some initial thoughts to your comments...

Brian