Category Archives: book reviews

What do you read when you're depressed?

The question itself may be wrong headed.  Maybe the question should be, can you read when you’re depressed?

But let’s go with the first question.  What do you read when you’re depressed?

I’ve reviewed a few books here along the way, some good, some not so good.  As most of you know, I’ve submitted a book to a publisher, and I’m continuing to pray for some success in that venture.  Even if you don’t have specific books, what types of books do you read?  Fiction, devotional?  other stuff.

Looking forward to hearing from you.  I’ll share my thoughts on this subject shortly.

-DMR

Forced to Pray: God's Chosen Under Pressure

This is one of about a dozen books I’m reading right now.  It is a series of devotional meditations based on the prayers of: Jonah, Job, Mary, Jesus and Paul.  I’m just starting on it, but thus far I like it very much.  He has a good grip on the theology of the cross.  I’m not sure how Christological yet, but I think it’s coming.  I’ll do a more complete review as we get through it.

Check it out!

-DMR

Pressed Down but Not Forgotten, A Review (book on depression)

Pressed Down But Not Forgotten, by H. Curtis Lyon and John Juern

Pressed Down but Not Forgotten

By H. Curtis Lyon and John Juern

Books on depression are a dime a dozen. Books on depression by Lutherans are rare, so rare in fact that this may be the only one I’ve read. So what does it have to offer us?

What’s Good

It has excellent, simple and understandable definitions of the various aspects of depression. It does a good job balancing the situational, biological and spiritual dimensions of the illness. In that respect I would say that the chapters on a clinical look at depression (Chapter 2) and how depression is treated (Chapter 3) are probably the best. These are two areas where most Christians will have little or no understanding.

The book is short. This is very good. Some of the books about depression on my shelf (e.g. The Noonday Demon) are hundreds and hundreds of pages. While the material may be worthwhile, it becomes completely unaccessible because of the morass of words.

One of the authors (Rev. Curt Lyon) is a WELS pastor, and the other (Dr. John Juern) is a WELS layman and clinical psychologist. What this means in this case is that there is a pretty good basic understanding of the Gospel at work, there’s no decision theology or any blatant heresies. There are other problems,, though, which we will get to in a moment.

I also like the use of case studies to understand a given situation or problem associated with depression. While it gets a little old by the end of the book, it is for the most part effective and helpful.

What’s Not So Good

A couple issues with the book stick out. First of all is the ugly and really cheesy graphics. Smiley faces and frowney faces. Blech. Patronizing and silly. Spare me.

The book originally came out in 1996, so almost everything in there about medication is dated. The general concepts are correct, but most people won’t even recognize the names of the medications cited. It needs to be updated.

The real problem with the book, though, is theological. It’s not any kind of heresy or false doctrine. The problem is that the author’s never make the connection between the cross and here-and-now. It is completely asacramental or even anti-sacramental. I have found this tragically common in Wisconsin Synod publications, and this is no exception. While the beauty and comfort of Jesus’ death is held up, how that comes to us now (the Word and holy Sacraments) is never even mentioned in the book. Holy Absolution has no mention, either.

Now this doesn’t surprise me. Most people don’t get that. But it is such a critical thing, especially for someone who is clinically depressed. The sacraments are extra nos, they come from outside of us. My baptismal identity frees me from the shackles of my own pathetic works. I am free, because I am in Christ. This is one of the most comforting things that the depressed can hear, and it is completely absent in the book.

So overall I’d give it about three stars out of five. It has a place on my shelf and is good, but the Lutheran work on this important topic has yet to be written.

-DMR

The Snow Queen

As I was digging around online today, musing on the level of winter weather we’ve had this year, I ran across an article on Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairy tale, The Snow Queen.

The author of the article uses the fairy tale of the Snow Queen as a metaphor for depression. I won’t recount the story, but it is a very interesting interpretation.

It’s a great article. I often am intrigued by how regular themes of depression and anxiety appear in literature, even children’s literature.

Can any of the readers here think of any other fairy tales that may apply?

-DMR

The Yellow Wallpaper

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, is not what one would consider “normal” reading for Lutheran pastors. Ms. Gilman was a turn of the (20th) century proto-feminist, advocated group raising for children (“it takes a village”), and any number of peculiar to downright evil ideas.

She also had a brilliant insight into the mindset of depression and anxiety.

In the signature short story in the above book (The Yellow Wallpaper), the protagonist has been diagnosed with melancholy. Her husband is a doctor, and believes that the best thing for her is to be kept away from all human contact. Despite her ongoing objections, she is made a virtual prisoner in her own home, a cottage they have rented until she gets better.

Of course, she doesn’t get better.  She goes slowly mad, and becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her upper room where she spends all her time.  The patterns in the paper become alive, she starts to see people on the other side of the paper.  It consumes her, until she finally cannot take it anymore and commits suicide.

Now the element of this story which I found so intriguing is the role of her husband.  He is a doctor, so he is an expert.  She cannot question his judgment, because that would be both unseemly and totally counterproductive.  So she is forced to accept his diagnosis even though everything within her says it is wrong.

The parallels between this and modern approaches to depression and other mental illnesses is striking.  What “camp” you fall into will determine your diagnosis.  Traditional medicine.  Homeopathy.  Good ole’ American willpower.  The “Luther” view of sing more hymns loud, drink more and be with people more (more on this little topic in another post).  Some will say drugs are the only way to go.  Therapy must be the answer.  Others will say that prayer is the only way.  Still others meditation, sunlight,  etc.  But it is surprising to me how completely exclusive these approaches can become.

The reality is that the mind is an incredibly complex thing, truly a wonder of God’s creation.  Just as there are many causes for depression, even so there may be many roads out of depression.  What we must be on guard against is presuming that one view or approach is the end all only way to come to a right way out.

In this path we walk, our Lord has given us many tools for healing.  God will see you through, no matter what path you may end up talking along the way.

-DMR

Depression in the workforce

The Washington Post recently reported on a new government study on depression in the workplace.

This article is worth reading, and the report is worth considering. I also find it noteworthy that it is “Personal Care and Service” that is the highest percentage, with “Community and social services” being third.

They obviously don’t have a category for pastors, nor am I aware of any major studies on this topic per se. However, the book Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry is a useful study, but it doesn’t really address the question.

When will our church bodies wake up to the fact that clinical depression is real, debilitating, and getting worse every year for pastors? Everyone else seems to know this!

-DMR

Response from Dr. Yahnke

In the previous post regarding the book, Sophie’s Choice, I referenced a fine paper by Dr. Beverly Yahnke. A couple of people raised questions about whether she was advocating the breaking of the confessional seal in the second to last paragraph of her paper. I took the liberty of contacting her directly about this, and this was her response:

DarkMyRoad invited me to review the most recent postings regarding my paper,”The Taxonomy of Despair” and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to the very appropriate concern raised regarding confessional privacy.

As one who treaures the practice of individual confession and absolution, I prize the confidentiality of the confessional and would never recommend that any pastor violate the privacy promised the penitent.

For the record, the Saint Louis speech was addressed to parish nurses, church workers of all stripes, family, friends and pastors of the despairing. Every single one of those individuals should seek external professional assistance to respond to a person who is acutely suicidal UNLESS that information is offered as part of individual confession and absolution. In that case, the pastor is always bound to protect the privacy of the penitent. (I presumed that point to be obvious to the pastors in attendance; hence did not feel the need to dwell on the matter.) I should underscore that most of the time, as the paper suggests, individuals in end stage self-loathing and seeking escape are not seeking an opportunity for conversation or confession. They are barely tolerating any care of any sort. In fact, the most frequent conversation about end stage despairing individuals often takes the form of a pastor who learns from a friend or a family member that a soul is dangerously pre-occupied with suicidal thoughts or self-loathing. If the soul refuses care and remains at risk, I believe that the pastor must act to provide appropriate safety in seeking care for the mentally ill — whenever the seal of the confessional does not prohibit it.

Dr. Bev Yahnke

There you have it. Does that make sense?

-DMR

Sophie's Choice


I recently finished reading an intriguing book by William Styron entitled Sophie’s Choice. Styron is the same author who wrote Darkness Visible, which I have commented on before. As a disclaimer, I will say that there is LOTS of poor language, sex, and other generally in appropriate things in the book, and that as a Christian reading it, you need to be prepared.

Having said that, it really is an amazing book.

Sophie, a Polish refugee who survived Auschwitz/Birkenau, is haunted by the terrible things she did in Cracow and again at the concentration camp. She went face to face with a great evil, and in her mind, she failed. Depression doesn’t even begin to describe her mental state. She is suicidal clearly, and is in the midst of a bizarre abusive relationship that the reader doesn’t truly understand until near the end of the book. Her boyfriend is schizophrenic, and so goes through periods of extreme violence and periods of “normalcy” along the way. In the end, she and her boyfriend complete a suicide pact which they had aborted some months earlier.

[spoiler: don’t read this paragraph if you want to read the book and be in suspense.]
The choice which she had to make was which one of her children would get to live, and which would get to die. She is forced to make this choice because she was Polish; for the Jews at the time, all the children died. But she got to choose one to live. The ultimate evil, or pretty darn close.

Now a number of things about this book have gotten me to continue thinking about it. First, the obvious traumatic event which triggers as deep and dark a depression as one can imagine. There was no history of depression in her family. Of course, I expect that seeing those kind of horrors will change a person no matter what. But to be asked to choose which child lives, and which dies. That would be the ultimate breaker of a personality, I would say.

The second is her obvious desire for redemption and forgiveness, even though she has abandoned her Catholic upbringing, because God “abandoned” her. Here is a perfect example of where do you go to look. She tried them all. Music, alcohol, sex, living the wild side, the whole gambit. She went everywhere except to the One who could help. The narrator (Stingo) is also an agnostic, and so the thought never really occurs to him.

Finally, we can see in Sophie’s Choice the devastating effect that events and how they are interpreted in our lives can have on us. There is no happy ending or making good with choosing between two of your children, only to have both of them die in the end.

For the Christian, how one address people in pain and suffering is a critical understanding. On the one hand, we can’t simply dismiss despair in whatever form it takes as merely unbelief to be squashed. In sin, every sinner is both the participant and the victim. Our task (esp. as pastors) is to minister to them, to draw the sin out, and to provide healing that is real and lasting. A part of that means when it comes to despair that there are real reasons why people fall into despair.

It also means providing them with hope to give hope where it belongs, in Jesus Christ and him crucified. But this doesn’t mean pat answers. It means tackling tough questions, admitting when we have no idea, and weeping with those who weep.

There is a fascinating paper out in cyberworld that addresses this topic by Dr. Bev Yahnke. It’s called Prescriptions for the Soul: The Taxonomy of Despair. Read it. And read this book. I look forward to your thoughts on the matters

-LL

Sophie's Choice


I recently finished reading an intriguing book by William Styron entitled Sophie’s Choice. Styron is the same author who wrote Darkness Visible, which I have commented on before. As a disclaimer, I will say that there is LOTS of poor language, sex, and other generally in appropriate things in the book, and that as a Christian reading it, you need to be prepared.

Having said that, it really is an amazing book.

Sophie, a Polish refugee who survived Auschwitz/Birkenau, is haunted by the terrible things she did in Cracow and again at the concentration camp. She went face to face with a great evil, and in her mind, she failed. Depression doesn’t even begin to describe her mental state. She is suicidal clearly, and is in the midst of a bizarre abusive relationship that the reader doesn’t truly understand until near the end of the book. Her boyfriend is schizophrenic, and so goes through periods of extreme violence and periods of “normalcy” along the way. In the end, she and her boyfriend complete a suicide pact which they had aborted some months earlier.

[spoiler: don’t read this paragraph if you want to read the book and be in suspense.]
The choice which she had to make was which one of her children would get to live, and which would get to die. She is forced to make this choice because she was Polish; for the Jews at the time, all the children died. But she got to choose one to live. The ultimate evil, or pretty darn close.

Now a number of things about this book have gotten me to continue thinking about it. First, the obvious traumatic event which triggers as deep and dark a depression as one can imagine. There was no history of depression in her family. Of course, I expect that seeing those kind of horrors will change a person no matter what. But to be asked to choose which child lives, and which dies. That would be the ultimate breaker of a personality, I would say.

The second is her obvious desire for redemption and forgiveness, even though she has abandoned her Catholic upbringing, because God “abandoned” her. Here is a perfect example of where do you go to look. She tried them all. Music, alcohol, sex, living the wild side, the whole gambit. She went everywhere except to the One who could help. The narrator (Stingo) is also an agnostic, and so the thought never really occurs to him.

Finally, we can see in Sophie’s Choice the devastating effect that events and how they are interpreted in our lives can have on us. There is no happy ending or making good with choosing between two of your children, only to have both of them die in the end.

For the Christian, how one address people in pain and suffering is a critical understanding. On the one hand, we can’t simply dismiss despair in whatever form it takes as merely unbelief to be squashed. In sin, every sinner is both the participant and the victim. Our task (esp. as pastors) is to minister to them, to draw the sin out, and to provide healing that is real and lasting. A part of that means when it comes to despair that there are real reasons why people fall into despair.

It also means providing them with hope to give hope where it belongs, in Jesus Christ and him crucified. But this doesn’t mean pat answers. It means tackling tough questions, admitting when we have no idea, and weeping with those who weep.

There is a fascinating paper out in cyberworld that addresses this topic by Dr. Bev Yahnke. It’s called Prescriptions for the Soul: The Taxonomy of Despair. Read it. And read this book. I look forward to your thoughts on the matters

-LL