metonymy4u

The behavioral model of depression suggests that it is amplified by a lack of adequate contextual positive reinforcement. The antidote therefore is to identify those contextual events that do provide such reinforcement and increase their frequency. Of course, what is reinforcing to any given individual is somewhat idiosyncratic and requires some development of awareness skills. This is the theory behind the dialectical notion that we all must work to build a “life worth living.” The model of response contingent positive reinforcement becomes a set of recommendations for giving meaning to one’s existence. And, as Nietzsche said, “If we have our own why of life, we shall get along with almost any how.” In my own case, I have observed that whenever I do attempt to find such a reinforcing context, I am unable to fit in to it in some critical fashion, and that it finally is not reinforcing to me. This has been my predominant experience in life, and I do not believe it is a cognitive distortion to say so. What does the model say, I wonder, to a person who is starting to realize that there objectively is no “meaning” to be found in their own existence? For whom life itself is the pervasively punishing condition?