Summary Of Secondhand Blues By Michael Yapko

Summary

Michael Yapko (2009), in his article “Secondhand Blues,” considers depression as a social condition, thereby allowing it to spread from depressed individuals to any and all of the important people in their life. Considering this, Yapko’s main subjects within the article are depressed parents, focusing on the effect they have on their children, and depressed individuals and the effect they have on their partners or spouses. There are a few central themes through these subject groups, such as infectiously negative worldviews, self-blame or persecutory thinking, and feelings of hopelessness, as naturally common with depression.

Even from birth, parental depression can affect children. Yapko states “that the apathy and withdrawal of mothers

In my experience, I’ve only heard of and interacted with depression as abnormal psychology or illness and while Yapko’s piece doesn’t necessarily discourage this way of thinking, it’s incredibly helpful to understand and consider the environmental aspects. Therefore, I’d imagine I would personally find this information helpful with my own interactions with depressed people, as it could be useful to consider the bigger picture. Considering my own experience with depressed family members, specifically my mother, I found it incredibly useful to consider this perspective. Similarly, I would imagine that not only would teachers, spouses, or parents benefit from reading this article, but it could be generally useful information for anyone who, say, knows a depressed person or who is interested in working in a psychiatric field or the like. Yapko’s views on interparental relationships would, obviously, be the most useful for parents and their interactions with their own mental health in relation to their children. I’d like to think that even therapists or doctors would benefit from this

As with most things, if it lacks entertainment value and the special interest of the reader, it could be difficult to read if only for that reason. Otherwise, it was very easy to read and understand, as the language was simple and straightforward. I personally found that the article held my attention very well, but, then again, I enjoy these types of readings. In the future, though, I think the research on depression as a social condition could benefit from delving into schools and the support systems provided there by school counselors, teachers, and caregivers. It would also be both intriguing and helpful to consider the intersection of things like bullying, peer pressure, and the like with depression rates among children. I think that any sort of further research on this topic would be useful, but specifying it to smaller demographics would be very helpful, as