Sadness, Depression, and the Dark Night of the Soul

Dr Glòria Durà-Vila is a multi-award winning consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, author, and lecturer. She works in private practice (psychiatryinlondon.co.uk) and in the Surrey and Borders NHS Trust where she is Medical Lead for ASD. Her passion for communicating the Autism diagnosis to children in a personalised way, one that captures their strengths and difficulties within the Autism Spectrum, is central to her writing and her academic and clinical work.

Acknowledgments. Foreword. Preface. Part I. Setting the literary and historical contexts. 1. Depression and the medicalization of sadness: conceptualisation and help-seeking. 2. The role of the clergy in the management of sadness and depression, and their collaboration with mental health professionals. 3. Sketches on the Catholic Church and monasticism. Part II. Unfolding the narratives of sadness and spiritual growth. 4. The participants and their ways of life. 5. Conceptualisation of sadness, depression and the Dark Night of the Soul. 6. Coping and help-seeking for sadness and depression. 7. The role of the clergy in the care of sadness and depression, and their collaboration with mental health professionals. Part III. Stepping beyond the monastries' and parishes' walls. 8. The medicalization of sadness and the Dark Night of the Soul. 9. Religious coping with sadness and depression. 10. The clergy's role in assisting those suffering from sadness and depression. 11. A framework to differentiate normal sadness from depression. References. Appendix 1. Ethical Considerations. Appendix 2. Limitations of the study. Appendix 3. Finding the questions to get the answers. Appendix 4. List of tables and figures. Appendix 5. Summary of findings: main themes and sub-themes extracted from the participants' interviews.