[Zaphods]

Is this that people with depression crave sad music, or that music meant to elicit pathos has found its target audience?

> The controversial implication is that depressed people deliberately act in ways that are likely to maintain their low mood.

How is this remotely controversial? Finding something you like is not the same as liking your state or disposition for depression.

> “… may reflect a desire for calming emotional experience rather than a desire to augment sad feelings.”

So, we've basically confirmed that people get pleasure out of liking things? This study seems weird.

[LesZedCB]

Kurzgesagt had a really great video[1] on loneliness that described the downward spiral that people find themselves in.

> > The controversial implication is that depressed people deliberately act in ways that are likely to maintain their low mood.

> How is this remotely controversial? Finding something you like is not the same as liking your state or disposition for depression.

i think that is controversial because it assigns agency to the person experiencing the depression, that they are causing their own depression. but the most common complaint from people with depression is that people are always telling them to "just cheer up" etc etc. this is the same sentiment in a specific context. "if you just didn't listen to depressing music all the time, maybe you wouldn't be so depressed."

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Xv_g3g-mA

[Zaphods]

Now I think we're running into the strange alleyways in our concept of depression. Do people with depression have no agency in their depression? I think it depends.

Depression can be a disposition, ie. someone is disposed to being depressed but not always depressed.

Depression can be a mental state, ie. I'm depressed right now.

Depression can also be a clinical diagnosis, ie. you are lacking such and such chemical balance and that is your depression and you require such and such to "fix" it.

Depression can be an emotion or a feeling, ie. I feel depressed, or that poet is describing or manifesting their depression in their words.

Depression can be a cause and a reason, in the sense that one (an agent) gives a reason for their actions.

The concept of depression has different degrees of agency. In some clinical cases, none at all. That seems controversial until you realize depression is a complex and flexible concept.

This study seems to have not clarified what exactly they are talking about when they describe people as depressed.

[LesZedCB]

from the paper's abstract:

> In three studies, _clinically depressed_ participants were more likely than nondepressed participants to use emotion-regulation strategies in a direction that was likely to maintain or increase their level of sadness. (emphasis mine)

[Zaphods]

That clarifies a lot, then, thank you.

In this case, then, I don't think the article from the BPS accurately presented the research in the paper. The fact that they specified that it is clinical depression in the abstract is pretty important to the importance of this study. To elide that seems to bury the lede.