Past Programs
Depression - 2004
The Anatomy of Melancholy
24/04/2004
Published in 1621, The Anatamomy of Melancholy is one of the great classics on the mind and its discontents. Today it reads as a curious treatise on depression with a strong satirical vein, but in its time it was an enormously influential work, inspiring the efforts of both Keats and Byron, amongst others. Samuel Johnson, it is reported, nominated it as the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise! This week, Sue Clark travels back in time to contemplate the legacy of the great tome's author, Oxford clergyman and scholar Robert Burton.
The transcript of this program will be available by Thursday 29 April 2004, but catch the Real Audio on the All In the Mind homepage after Saturday's broadcast.
The Evolution of Depression - Does it Have a Role?
03/04/2004
Major and minor depression, even post partum depression - could they serve an important evolutionary function? Is depression a biological pathology or an adaptation, critical to our reproductive success and survival as a species? This week, Natasha Mitchell is joined by two evolutionary biologists who argue that our capacity to be depressed has evolved over millennia to help us respond to and cope with difficult social circumstances. It's a deeply controversial thesis that, they argue, could have implications for how we read and treat depression in a therapeutic setting. But critics are concerned about what these implications might be.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: Good for Everyone?
04/01/2004
Summer Series - originally broadcast 29 June 2003
Many of us go to a therapist to help us over life's minor and major hurdles, or
depression and anxiety. From psychodynamic psychotherapy to interpersonal therapy, there are oodles of approaches to try. But according to the best clinical evidence, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the therapy to beat. It offers practical strategies to help identify and change unhelpful thoughts
and dysfunctional behaviours that get in the way of the good life - and over a
relatively short time frame. But does it work for everyone? And how do you establish good scientific evidence for a psychotherapy when so much depends on a major wildcard - your relationship with your therapist? All In the Mind investigates...
