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Just watched this in its entirety (and I'm much of a book person than I am a devotee of YouTube University), and I found it quite a worthwhile watch. Would appreciate any feedback. My only criticism is that I think he speaks entirely from an academic perspective and as such does not exactly demonstrate much empathy for the depressed (the laughter of the audience at decidedly unfunny junctures does not much help), but this is still about as good an overview of the topic as one could provide, I'd say. And he does at least reiterate on multiple occasions the biological reality of the disease of depression (though somewhat needlessly, given the detail he goes into on precisely that topic for the duration of the lecture...well, sans the portion he devotes to the psychological-not-biological 'aspect' of the condition)
Thanks, Matt. Very interesting. And you are right...not the warmest touchy feely person...definitely more an academic/scientist. Interesting that a depressed person’s sleep cycles are so messed up and non-restorative, since we think of someone with depression as sleeping a lot, but the quality is lacking.
My only criticism is that I think he speaks entirely from an academic perspective and as such does not exactly demonstrate much empathy for the depressed (the laughter of the audience at decidedly unfunny junctures does not much help), but this is still about as good an overview of the topic as one could provide, I'd say.
I've watched all of his lectures online and he is a brilliant and gifted professor. I believe on the contrary that he is a very empathetic person, he just knows how to separate his work from his personal feelings. When you are a professor in such a field I think it's important to be flexible and not be serious all the time. I think it helps the students also enjoy and actually learn easier. I kind of disagree that he speaks entirely from an academic perspective, cause it's not boring and straightforward like the lectures I have attended, but we probably have a different perception of what empathy is.
I don't think I found points in his lectures where I disagree with him profoundly and I have bought his book "zebras don't get ulcers" but I haven't gotten to reading it yet. Interesting nonetheless. I'd suggest you watch his lectures from the first one as sometimes they compliment each other.
OP: It makes sense someone from Buffalo would start this thread. Isn't it gloomy there with many overcast days? I'd imagine people in Buffalo suffer from what the professor talks about more than some other cities. I heard the same thing about Seattle.
OP: It makes sense someone from Buffalo would start this thread. Isn't it gloomy there with many overcast days? I'd imagine people in Buffalo suffer from what the professor talks about more than some other cities. I heard the same thing about Seattle.
Yeah, it is gloomy (with slightly less sunshine hours per year than Seattle if I'm not mistaken), but I've yet to see convincing evidence that geographical incidence of depression is significantly (or at all) higher in gloomy places. I've in the past seen data (of perhaps dubious quality) which list Utah as the state with the highest rate of depression (I believe the basis for this determination was rate of antidepressant usage/prescription in the population), and that's more in curiousgeorge5's stated neck of the woods. NY State also had the lowest suicide rate of any state in the nation in some recent year, although probably not by a statistically significant margin. Seattle used to be notorious for suicides but I'm not sure how much that still holds (and also how much if its past reputation was based on perception/Kurt Cobain/etc rather than hard data).
Also, my posting of this does not necessarily imply that I am depressed, although I will admit that I deal with depression. I guess I mostly object to your geographically based stereotyping.
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