Stanford
14 HN recommenders · recommended in 17 months, 2009–2026
52:29 · 6.4M views · Nov 10, 2009
Stanford professor Robert Sapolsky lectures on depression as a real biological disease. He covers its biological and psychological causes, how it differs from ordinary sadness, and ideas such as learned helplessness. He ties these together into one account.
HN returns to it repeatedly as the best single introduction to understanding clinical depression.
20 comments from Hacker News
I tried everything except for medication. I was afraid i would no longer be 'myself' or that's what other people told me — or maybe that it would make the problem more real. Anyway, I eventually took meds, and I have never felt more myself, or the person I want to be. I work, learn, socialize, live in a (relatively) clean apartment, which I leave to go outside. It took me way too long accept that depression is not all my fault, that it's a disease, and that I needed to see a real doctor. For those who suffer, or know those who suffer (that's probably everyone) I really recommend this lecture: this video It's super interesting, it ties all the causes of depression together — childhood trauma, everyday experience, down to the neuron, and chemical reactions. It really helps externalize it.
Robert Sapolsky has a fantastic discussion of depression as a form of learned helplessness. We see it in abused animals: this video You are not much different from any other animal at some level. With enough conditioning you will believe that you have no agency over your own life, and you’ll just sit there and take the shocks hoping it ends soon. Or worse, you’ll lose perspective and imagine the only solution to your current (likely temporary) circumstance is to (definitely very permanently) end your own life.
This was posted in a HN comment not too long ago. It's a very good lecture that goes into both the biological and psychological aspects of depression and then manages to tie them together. this video > We say that there is something wrong with their brains, rather than saying that there is something wrong with society. The real answer is probably a little bit from column A and a little bit from column B.
Sapolsky on depression: this video “Depression is agression turned inwards”. He explains what our current understanding of depression is. I think you’ll have a whole new understanding of depression after watching this.
This is the quintessential video for understanding clinical depression. A Stanford lecture given by Dr Sapolsky: this video I highly recommend watching it to better understand the disease.