That’s interesting, although “it’s a failure mode, like chronic pain, of a normal mechanism” is the most immediately reasonable-sounding one to me.
There is a failure mode—much like ‘autoimmune disease’ is a failure mode of the infection fighting feature. But most of depression just doesn’t fit that category. The ‘reasonableness’ here tends to be a social judgement more than a descriptive one. But evolution just doesn’t have our social instincts.
Which I believe puts us into violent agreement.
About the desirability of the feature and approach to managing it if not of the nature, cause and adaptive purpose. Depression is a normal and natural feature of the human animal. It is also bad, evil, deprecated and an enemy to terminated with extreme prejudice.
There is a failure mode—much like ‘autoimmune disease’ is a failure mode of the infection fighting feature. But most of depression just doesn’t fit that category. The ‘reasonableness’ here tends to be a social judgement more than a descriptive one. But evolution just doesn’t have our social instincts.
About the desirability of the feature and approach to managing it if not of the nature, cause and adaptive purpose. Depression is a normal and natural feature of the human animal. It is also bad, evil, deprecated and an enemy to terminated with extreme prejudice.