Rational depression

Recognition

Traditionally, cognitive therapists have asserted that there is no such thing as a rational depression since, while sadness can be a natural response to loss or disappointment, depression results from distorted thoughts. Christian leaders (such as John Cassian, Isidore of Seville, Bede) recognized the distinction between “irrational” depression (which emerged frequently without any antecedent stressor and was therefore seemingly from God) and “rational” depression.

Research

Research indicates that although disability is associated with particular socially mediated stressors, there is no theoretical or empirical evidence to indicate that depression and its role in the right to die is dynamically different, more natural, or more reasonable for disabled people than for non-disabled people. Rational depression sometimes leads to rational suicide.

References

References

1. KL Kirschner. (February 2020). "Calling It Quits: When Patients or Proxies Request to Withdraw or Withhold Life-Sustaining Treatment After Spinal Cord Injury". Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation.
2. S Moorey. (1996). "When bad things happen to rational people: Cognitive therapy in adverse life circumstances". Frontiers of cognitive therapy.
3. BS, Amanda Stevens. (2023-03-21). "What Is Meant By Endogenous Depression?".
4. Gordon Parker. (2009). "Blue is the new black". World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.
5. (May 2004). "Depression in the Context of Disability and the "Right to Die"". Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.
6. Rodger S. Magnusson. (2001). "Challenges and Dilemmas in the "Aging and Euthanasia" Policy Cocktail". Springer Netherlands.