I like his definition "a person enters the depressive position if the amount of stress that he comes under is greater than the amount of stress that he can tolerate given the compliment of genes he has inherited"

"People in the depressive position are often stigmatized as 'failures' or 'losers'. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. If these people are in the depressive position it is because they tried too hard or taken on too much. So hard and so much that they have made themselves ill with depression. In other words, if these people are in the depressive position, it was simply because their world was not good enough for them. They wanted more. They wanted better. They wanted different, not just for themselves, but for all those around them. So if they are failures and losers, this is only because they set the bar far too high. They could of swept everything under the carpet and pretended as so many people do, that all is for the best and the best of possible worlds. However, unlike most people, they had the strength and the honesty to admit that something was amiss; to admit that something wasn't quite right. So rather than being failures or losers they are all the opposite. They are ambitious, they are truthful, they are courageous, and that is precisely why they became ill. To make them believe that they are suffering from some mental disorder, or some chemical imbalance in the brain, and that their recovery depends entirely or even mostly on popping pills is to do them and to do us an immense disfavor. It is to deny them the opportunity, not only to identify and address important life problems, but also to deny them the opportunity to develop a more refined perspective and a deeper understanding of themselves and of the world around them; and therefore, to deny them the opportunity to develop their highest potential as human beings."- Dr. Neel Burton

that ending tho.... i cried like a baby. that meant so much to hear...

"these people have taken on so much and so hard that they made themselves ill with depression , for them the world wasn't good enough , they wanted more and they wanted better not for just themselves but for those around them and their depression is a product of them setting the bar to high up" i will never forget these words , i won't . i never imagined that a ted talk would illustrate my life so bluntly and truthfully . im crying while writing this and at least to me that proves how much of an impact this man's words had on me.

my ex girlfriend suffered from schizophrenia and had me near a nervous breakdown more than once, a lot of people supported me, but a lot of people said "run". i tell people that although she drove me almost crazy i have never been more creative, i had an art exhibition based on my impression of her brain, i played guitar for forty years but didn't start composing till i met her (she is a talented singer and song writer) and i'm half-way through a book about the surreal life that's plagued me since we met. i even took up sculpture after fifteen years of just talking about it. i tell people however much she hurt me, that i'm an artist and i appreciate a good tragedy. as a massive generalisation, happy people don't really have to think much about life, but i spent five years trying to figure what a relationship is, when the person you're in love with has no idea how relationships work. now she's gone i continue with my art, but not with the same energy or drive, and life although it has fewer upsets is very, very, very dull.

Honestly this is the most hopeful message on depression I have ever heard. And it validates what I have been thinking, I am going to ask my physician to help to wean me off of antidepressants. Thank you.

In other words, if these people are in the depressive position, it is because their world was simply not good enough for them. They wanted more, they wanted better and they wanted different. And not just for themselves, but for all those around them. So if they are failures or losers, this is only because they've set the bar far too high. They could have swept everything under the carpet and pretended, as so many people do, that all is for the best in the best of possible worlds. However, unlike most people, they had the strength and the honesty to admit that something was amiss, to admit that something was not quite right.

Contrary to putting me to sleep, I have listened to this talk many times.

One of the most underrated talk, Pills are not the solution!

One of the few convincing talks, not part of the chirpy cult of happiness and magical thinking.

Thank you. Finally, someone who is not so attached to biological idea of depression, but who recognises it for the adaptation and survival mechanism that it is. Depression comes at a time in your life when you need to make a change, and sometimes it forces that change. Denying that need for change (and drugging the depression) only drives it deeper, and delays the needed change for later.

This is the most amazing words I heard lately made me feel more comfortable with my depression instead of constantly reminded me that I am a failure.

This is a breath-taking video. I'm a very dark and generally melancholy type, and I can say that I have in turn, dealt with the symptoms of depression. Thankfully, it is as he said, I do not have the mental illness. This video his the nail in the head for me, and was an extremely educational experience.

For him to have such a deep understanding of depression, I suspect he too has suffered from it. To understand it you’d had to live in it. By far my favorite talk on the subject.

My ancestors found creative ways to sustain them during their forced enslavement in America. . . they invented the Blues and then Jazz. Later, during WWII, Hitler thought that if he could hijack Radio Free Europe and pipe in Jazz, it would so insult the Europeans that they would rebel against the U.S. allies invasion. To his utter horror, it did just the opposite. The Europeans loved the music so much. It eased their fears and depression. Today, jazz is more popular in Europe than in America. . . . These are examples of how natural internal creative resources work far better than synthetic toxic drugs.

It's so refreshing to hear somebody put into words what i've suspected about this subject all along.

One of the best TED talks i've ever watched on KZfaq.

Have been depressed 5 years now. I've heard it all before, taken all the pills, but this video was different and gave me a new perspective gain more insight into why and how I descended.

Being a mental health professional and philosopher and having listened to this a few times I would say that the people who criticise this talk were just not listening to it properly. Its far more subtle and far reaching that the critics here make out. If you want agreement with your own position listen to something else. If you want your assumptions challenged carry on listening and you may get to hear.

Thank you Dr. Neel Burton. All the words that humanize a depression person... and that shows the world we have vallue Makes me cry. Thank you.

Wow! I loved this. We are often better than our circumstances and we feel debilitated by depression after trying so hard for so long. Excellent perspective! I wasn't sure at first if I agreed, but his ending was powerful.

THAT WAS AMAZING. Thank you. As a person living with Bipolar Disorder and trying to find reasons to live, this helped immensely.

This talk should have many more views... We all need to understand that our body comunicates constantly, and we need to focus in order to understand what it is saying.

I've been depressed for a long while. This is quiet cheerful for me!

Very good talk on depression. One of the best and most accurate to my understanding that I have heard in fact.

This is an awesome talk! I showed this to some close friends and they weren´t really impressed by it and I can understand them. It´s not that they don´t get his points, it´s just that they don´t really feel the way that he is describing and as such they see things from another perspective that works just fine for them. They can´t really feel into the position that I felt myself to be in a couple of years before. And that´s kind of hard to digest at first because for me it seems so logical what he is saying, it just makes perfect sense, not just on a reasonable but also on an emotional level. But then again I can instantly admit that they must have just as much of a hard time picturing why I can´t understand their points, as I have when picturing why this video doesn´t speak to them as much as it does to me. Because that, for a long time was my quarrel with life, especially back in the last few years of school...I try to be rational all the time, not calm, but reasonable as in trying to weigh out point against point as fair and unbiased as possible. Sounds good and noble but is always coming with a bit of hypocrisy and is many times not even needed to reach a solution. And as such, back in school when I was forced to be in a class with a school trying everything for the people to have to interact with each other, but as soon as the teacher turns around the gossiping and the hatespeeches and all those mean things that teenagers can do start almost immediately...I would be there, stuck somewhere in the middle, trying to defend the weaker side but also criticising them for being targets for all that stuff in the first place, just wanting for them to change so I don´t have to care about all this anymore. And the result, year after year was always the same, the bullies would hate me for standing up against them and the originally targeted ones weren´t better to me, because I just couldn´t make it clear that my critic on them was not because I wanted to be mean like the guys before but because I wanted to encourage them to be stronger themselves so it wouldn´t come that far anymore. It wasn´t that my critic on them was harsh or anything, but I couldn´t understand them either, I couldn´t understand that they were hurt and suspicious of someone actually helping them...who, after defending them, would also turn around and would criticise them. It wasn´t even my fault really, I understand that now, but back then I just couldn´t figure out why they would always overreact so much when I tried to be reasonable with them in order for them to change for the better. I didn´t know how being bullied before biased them towards my actions. Well and as such school wasn´t fun anymore. It was like 7th to 13th grade, classes got changed like 4 times and it would always turn out the same way. And in the beginning it wasn´t even really a problem, you know first and second year and try..."well, I just had bad luck with those people"...but 6 years of that, every schoolday...every time with the same result but unable to change myself because I always thought I would be doing things the only correct way possible...well it lead to the exact situation he is describing. But my friends didn´t have all that, that´s like 6 years of built up to feel that way, how could they ever get the same feelings from this video as I do...or did. It´s a completely different mindset, like in the movies with the ´good´ guy trying to archieve peace and harmony by never hurting anyone and taking all the beating and the ´bad´ guy wanting to archieve the same goal but only sees violance as a way to archieve it. And it´s really the same in this without the heroism...if they wanted to resolve a fight or stop the bullying, they always had a group of friends in with them, they always had the mindset that with time it will resolve itself, they always could appeal to one side or the other to stop with what they are doing and as such the bullies would just do them the favor or the victims changed because they weren´t criticised but encouraged to change (forced by the will of the bullies yes, but who cares if after that they can be happy again, as teenager you like being changed anyways, if someone just shows you how. And the bullies were talked into finding new hobbies but wouldn´t care because...well what´s the reason for bullying someone as a teenager, as if it would take something big to start it and as such to let it go). To me those things just weren´t real options. Anyways, this video helped me a lot, together with the fact that I don´t need to interact with people that hate me anymore^^ Obviously I am still the same old me, didn´t change my way of thinking in itself. But helping me to understand and analyze my own situation and condition helped me with approaching things differently. I still try to get everything in balance, but my approach to archieving that is very different. I am not that strict anymore and can lead a conversation in the direction I want it to go but take a step back if it doesn´t work, see if it changes into something solveable over time, taking it slowly and asking for help and advice from others. No I wouldn´t say I had a severe depression, but really, people who don´t understand anything about it always set suicidal thoughts as a requirement for a severe depression. That is just not how it works. I was just stuck within a position I felt the only way of escaping was by changing myself, but because I thought I was doing the right things and nobody told me what exactly I was doing wrong than rather just getting angry or bored by my stories, I didn´t know how to change without betraying my ideals that are so important to me. Well, this video gave me the starting point back then and so in my eyes it´s a really great talk that always cheers me up when I´m feeling down, not because it´s so funny, just because this always reminds me of how much can change.

I found myself clapping consistently throughout the entire talk. I love him for what he said. I learned about him today and I am so looking forward to reading his work

I literally cried at the end of that speech. I haven't cried this real in years, this man is amazing and I want to know more about his work.

What a fantastic human being and speach!! I just felt like weeping because someone finally hit the nail on the head!!! we as sufferers are often seen as weak and even lazy when in all reality we are completely 'burnt-out' and 'broken'...I for one, have never been the same again, since my breakdown, for me, life's an uphill struggle each day, often leaving me feeling, that it would be simply better if could just close my eyes and slip into Eternal rest.

"I take that the clapping is for Marcel Proust" hahaha if that's modesty instead of humbleness it's well disguised, this is probably the best Tedtalk I've seen, definetly the best one on depression

Best TED talk on depression I've watched

I love this guy. So much motivation in this talk. I agree with what he says.

Neel Burton is my best. I listened to this talk 5 times again and I still could listen to it again.

As good a speech on depression as I have seen. Finally, a psychiatrist who seems to understand depression from a realistic perspective (the sufferer) rather than a diagnosis or treatment which serves their own purpose.

this guy is SPOT ON. Thank you for your work

to me the best Ted talk about the darkness of human nature

totally agree with you. the worst thing u can tell someone that is depressed is to snap out of it or to cheer up or "what is there to be depressed about?" what these people always fail to understand is that there is NOTHING to be depressed about, yet you are depressed, and always have been for as long as you remember. your brain is just wired this way. it's like asking a pessimist to be an optimist overnight. it doesn't work that way.

Amazing talk, thanks Dr Burton! I humbly agree with you 100%. thanks TED for sharing, as always

Amazing talk. Related to it deeply. Thank for your service Mr. Neel Burton

Interesting vocal inflection. Not ideal for public speaking, but I bet it helps calm people down when they are dealing with overwhelming dread and anxiety on a daily basis.

I've watched just about every TED talk about depression/anxiety. I've read countless books, opinions, and studies. I read all of the comments going back years, months, weeks regarding this particular talk. I've had to deal with the cruelty that depression imposed on upon me most of my life. What hurts me the most, are the people in my life, or who are now out of it, could never sustain a level of empathy and LOVE. Carla's sick, let's give her a little touch of sympathy and then GO! As I read the various comments tonight; most are very pleasing and loving to read. Still it never fails. There are always a few asshats, who just can't help themselves in taking a little pleasure in demeaning the true, shitty mess that happens to be our lives. Fuckin snobs! Of course, I must exclude the honest and vulnerable souls, who actually care about everyone's circumstances. If I could reach out and hold you all, that would fill me up with so much love. Oh, asshats included! I still have a sense of humor thank God!

Thanks Dr. Burton. This was one of the best Ted Talks about depression.

Thank you very much, I can't stop crying... you really understand me well

very good videos. I also suffered with depression for years after my divorce but totally recovered and I am a happy person (on crutches now with lots of physical pain).

An exceptional sober view of depression- one I deeply resonate with. I often quipped to my family and friends-- If you are not mentally disturbed, you're not paying attention.

Brilliant. More please. Reminds me a bit off Victor Frankl theories on the menaing of life. He put forth the theory that one of the main purposes of life was pain and suffering and only through that can ones soul strengthen and truly see. Who is to say, but a great Ted upload.

thank you for your encouragement...your brand new definition to depression gives us hope and empower us with strength.

Yes you can, find something you're good at and keep at it. I was always into writing fanfics, and eventually I had a few short stories published and I've just finished my first novel. If I can do it, you can too! Hold your head up high, mate.

A great speaker, genuine and knowledgeable. Thank you for your important work

Great talk. Changed my view completely.

Thank you, Doctor Neel Burton!

Thank you for a different focus on this. Thank you very much.

Brave,honarable dr.Neel Burton! Show deep knowledge. I wish more come out I am sure they can contribute In healing.🙏🏿

What worked for me was to give up on the parents and the religion, work hard as hell to learn how not to accept isolation as normal anymore but to learn how to make new friends, and to learn to parse out my honesty and caring with a smidge more discretion instead of trusting just everyone with it. Learned helplessness is hard to overcome, but it can be done. Stop investing in people who don't invest in you. Find worthier peers and community. I had luck as a UU, and with some online groups.

Wow, what an amazing talk!

YES! They tried too hard! Cared too much! And life let them down exactly! Thank you

My point is, if I'd just taken the depression meds like they wanted, it wouldn't have fixed the basic unfairness of my life. Learning to accept the unacceptable wasn't my way forward into happiness. I had to forge a completely new (for me) path. Letting go of all those old relationships, religion, and familiarity was very hard. But I'm much happier now. Few people understand how I can reject my birth family and religion and be happy, but there you go.

Can we aknowledge that a melancholy personality, "depressed" in the colloquial sense (sadness as we all experience it) and depression in the medical sense (which by definition has no genuine reason other than organic malfunction, is debilitating & kills your social life & productivity) are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS? Certainly there are positive sides to your typical "contemplative moody artist" personality; I'd describe myself as being like that and take pride in it the same way someone might be proud of being a likeable extrovert or an action-oriented doer. But that has NOTHING to o with the ugly, debilitating disease so many peeps struggle with and have their lives eaten by. There's nothing good about it any more than there is anything good about cancer. If anything this is an issue of misdiagnosing and not accounting for individual difference & personality type.

Depression for me is a retreat, for me it feels too real that in the beginning of my depression I feel more human than I ever was.I repress too much emotions,day dreaming most of the time..it makes me feel less of a human. I trained myself not to feel and to use my head 100% of the time rather dealing with the bruises life left me with and still show a smile on my face. the most painful part of it is when you realize you weren't being strong after all.

Calm and informed speaker. Well done, I enjoyed the talk.

Thank you dear respected brother। Your serious & grave sound and simplicity appealed me very much।love you।

Just brilliant, and so important. Thank you for sharing, and i'm going to get his book.

Thank you so much for this brilliant speech Totally changed my view on the depressive position

Thank so much Mr Burton, For your enlightening TED talk, I found myself crying out, yes finally! For years I have been thinking, and saying to friends, that there must be an anthropological rational for what we call depression; why would nature allow it to maintain otherwise. The image that comes to mind is a wounded animal in a cave, licking its wounds of memories, feeling threatened and defensive, however one day through reflective self-healing and the encouragement of others of its kind it remerges stronger back into the world. I tried before to contextualise this in something I read once when I going through the collapse of my neural architecture; as a consequence of overwhelming and alienating economic pressures. The writer had stated that during “depression” we start to access far more than usual our long term memory to find solutions to our pressing immediate problems. This can be so painful and confusing as we start to revisit past events that have remained functionally dormant. However, ultimately this can also allows us to define a deeper understanding of ourselves when placed in a supportive context. For myself after a few dead ends within the psychotherapeutic context I was able to obtain support and meaning within my Buddhist community and the practice of writing poetry. Others I met found new age “cults”, spiritualism, marginal political groups and causes to contextualise their sense of alienation or my favourite bohemian artistic groups to give context. Though these groups may prove unstable and counter productive in the long run, in the short term the lend context; indeed in may be why we so strongly associate creative types with these kind of so called marginal activities and why they appear to have higher levels of “depression”within these groups. From me I now at least three times a year go on retreat to healthy process my life and gain a perspective, practice with other involved in group bases pyscho-physcial integration in such things as boy work, dance and singing and I am retraining now to become a funeral celebrant to support other in their time of emotional and spiritual need and earn a moderate meaningful income in the context of voluntary simplicity. Please receive this kindly just as it is with its many faults. Peace

Thank You. Truly eye-opening.

Superb Empowering speech. Depression had it's own wisdom.

A different perspective ....and absolutely loved it. 😍😍😍😍😍

This is one of my favorite talks.

wait what? people's increased awareness of depression can enable them to see the bigger picture, but depression itself is debilitating and disables you from seeing the bigger picture :/

Brilliant! Have shared on fb and its been re-shared as a result. Has been v valuable and vindicating to my own analysis of depression. Thanks for sharing!

What a Brilliant talk... Speakin' the truth buddy..

Yes. So right! They were courageous enough to admit that something was in a mess!

Great and very supportive talk to me who is diagnosed with depression and put on pills. I only WISH that Ted's talk and Dr Neel Burton will have enough power to break through the moneymaking and egoistic society that creeping this world. Still I'm confused about my personal disposition after this video. Because it was delivered by a specialist from a balcony of the Oxford who's rates of patient visits probably will get to a figure that makes any humble person feel more depressed.

Wake up! This is my tada moment! I liked that moment and I respect his presentation.

Yes, SO TRUE. I was just thinking that I've always wanted better for those around me but then in trying to bring them up and I did, it brought me down. It takes tremendous work to lift others up from a much lower frequency. It drains you to be around broken people. Sometimes it's not by choice as it's the family that burdens as you try to heal everyone around you and keep taking care of yourself. Eventually your body/mind gets tired when it's only being nourished from your own energy. A source that we allow others to take from to heal themselves. We need other people to bring us up as well. Other wise you're absorbing the hurt and issues that don't even belong to you. With no one to bring you up, you step out of light and join those which energies you absorbed. Which I think a lot of begins in childhood.

Such a brilliant talk the perspective n viewpoint, this guy has expressed about depression gives an insight of which treat as an illness. Marvellous and that Marcel Proust quote paraphrasing!

Amazing new angle to look at depression. Great speech. Thank you!

I think that it's phenomenal that, in our society, we still have people who take a view point that in order to achieve greatness, suffering is almost always necessary. "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger."

I have had dysthymic depression, with frequent bouts of major depression, since I was quite young. I have also struggled, like everyone else, with the states of mind arising from existential crises. My conclusion, based on my own subjectivity, is that depression-the-mental-illness and states-of-mind-arising-from-existential-crises are quite different. I certainly agree with Burton at 5:57 that the "diagnosis of depression has been over-extended." It seems to me totally inappropriate to treat states-of-mind-arising-from-existential-crises with chemicals-- just as inappropriate, in fact, as self-medicating them with alcohol.

This guy I always read his article. Brilliant guy.

We don't use enough words 'depression' seems to be the only word we know for a variety of emotional states. We need to chop it up into pieces and get at the specific states of mind or trigger thoughts/events/feelings.

A fantastic talk , thank you

11:33 "Now, what important, adaptive advantage could the depressive position be conferring? If I've made you fall asleep, please wake up now because I think this is going to be the most important part of my talk..."

Brilliant talk.

Finnaly A psychiatrist who talks, and not just prescribe medications ..

You have a point. There are all kinds of reasons for depression. I have Asperger's and because I cannot rise to my own expectations I have depression. I am also creative which tends to go along with depression. But I can relate to you about the close friends,not being employable. My bar is set low and I still can't achieve. As I've gotten older I've learned to resign myself to my failings. I'm on disability and I accept that even if others can't.

Best talk I've ever hearth Thank you very much.

Very interesting. I agree with some of the comments below: definitely not a speaker but still, I could feel his deep intention here. I hope he will be heard or read by many!

Best speech on depression I've ever heard.

woo! you rock Neel! i needed to hear this :)

A small plug for Neel's book: "The Art of Failure: the Anti Self-help Guide". I thought it was very deep and illuminating when I read it two years ago. (I stumbled upon it by accident in the basement of a second-hand bookstore in Oxford, appropriately...)

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thanks a lot for the last 3 minutes !

Brilliant speech!

ABSOLUTELY!! I can't believe this is coming from a psyCHIATRIST as SO many prescribe pills for their mood disorders. Therapy is most important, as they LEARN how to cope through modifying their cognition through their behaviours, where as medication is a "quick fix". Where many describe medication as a "bandage" for a wound whereby healing, the real healing is through deeper repair.

I am thankful for this. 🌈

Absolutely right on!!!

Great words to describe this phenomena - thanks!

I don't know, I don't feel like I have great insight to be able to identify and correct wrongs in my life when I'm unable to get out of bed or suicidal. I don't idealize the excess "awareness of my mortality" that depression brings me. It's not really useful for me or society. Depression does not come from the idea that the world is not "good enough," it's an inability to see good in the world. This talk is pure speculation and I believe has very little basis in reality.

Dr. Burton,Wow, amazing talk. Everyone is always telling me that there is something wrong with me and to take pills, etc. but you put it a different way that really resonated with me and made me smile. Also, I thought you had a great sense of humor and your talk was funny at times. Thank God there are people in the world as bright and compassionate as you who have to the guts and insight to think outside the box. Who wants to be the same as everyone else anyway. Great speech. Big hug to you, Nan