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Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions by [Johann Hari]

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Johann Hari

Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression – and the Unexpected Solutions Kindle Edition

by Johann Hari (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

'A book that could actually make us happy' SIMON AMSTELL
'This amazing book will change your life' ELTON JOHN
'One of the most important texts of recent years' BRITISH JOURNAL OF GENERAL PRACTICE
'Brilliant, stimulating, radical' MATT HAIG
'The more people read this book, the better off the world will be' NAOMI KLEIN
'Wonderful' HILLARY CLINTON
'Eye-opening' GUARDIAN
'Brilliant for anyone wanting a better understanding of mental health' ZOE BALL
'A game-changer' DAVINA MCCALL
'Extraordinary' DR MAX PEMBERTON
'Beautiful' RUSSELL BRAND

Depression and anxiety are now at epidemic levels. Why? Across the world, scientists have uncovered evidence for nine different causes. Some are in our biology, but most are in the way we are living today.

Lost Connections offers a radical new way of thinking about this crisis. It shows that once we understand the real causes, we can begin to turn to pioneering new solutions – ones that offer real hope.

Length: 417 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Review

PRAISE FOR CHASING THE SCREAM: 'Thoughtful, thorough and questioning, and full of fresh reportage ... A writer who asks big questions, and desperately wants big answers (The Times)

Hari's empathy and keen eye for detail bring a disparate group of characters to life (New York Times)

Screamingly addictive. The story tells it all, jaw-droppingly horrific, hilarious and incredible, is one everyone should know (Stephen Fry)

Breathtaking ... A powerful contribution to an urgent debate (Guardian) --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

Johann Hari is the New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream. He was a columnist for the Independent in London for nine years and was twice named Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International UK. He has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, Slate, the New Republic and the Nation. He has been awarded the Comment Award for Cultural Commentator of the Year by Editorial Intelligence, and has been named Journalist of the Year by Stonewall. Hari lives in London.

chasingthescream.com / @johannhari101

--This text refers to the paperback edition.

ASIN : B075RTJV67
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing; 1st edition (11 January 2018)
Language : English
File size : 1665 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 417 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 16,061 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 4 in Social Services & Welfare (Kindle Store)
- 12 in Depression (Kindle Store)
- 21 in Depression (Books)

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Politics disguised as psychology

Reviewed in Australia on 1 October 2019

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This book started off with an interesting premise. However, it became clear the more I got through it that this book is really just using depression as a front to justify a political angle. What are the causes of depression according to this book? Capitalism and oppression (by the usual suspects against the usual suspects). What are the solutions? In no particular order; feminism, universal basic income, democratised workplaces, and prioritising the community above the individual. Mixed in are some old cliches about accepting childhood trauma and reconnecting with nature, as well as some political porn about the righteous struggles of various minorities throughout the 20th century. Throw in some dated snipes at Donald Trump and Brexit, and you’ve got this book.

The book is not all bad, though. The solutions may all be copy/pasted political agendas, but a lot of the issues it raises are pertinent. Modern western culture does prioritise consumerism, and does break down communities, and does make people feel like their work is meaningless, and does push pills on people who don’t need them, etc. But this book does not offer solutions, it offers political policies. The final chapter even admits, and outright champions the idea, that openly utopian ideals are the necessary solution.

If you’re looking for a book that makes you feel better, that you’ve been wronged by the world, and that you can cure your depression and find meaning in left wing activism, this is the book for you. If you just want a book to vindicate your opinions about the world, this may be the book for you. If you feel like you’ve lost meaning, and that you don’t see a future for yourself, and that you cannot find happiness, and that you just want answers that will allow you to live a simple, peaceful life, look elsewhere. I would recommend Man’s Search for Meaning as a starting point.

I rate it 3 stars instead of 2, because the importance of the issues raised in this book trumps the empty partisan solutions. As a final remark, I might add that the writing style is atrocious. It is incredibly informal and screams “millennial,” for a book that it ostensibly about a serious topic. This reinforces the feeling that this book was made for a certain audience, not for the wider community of people suffering from or interested in depression. This book feels like a really long blog post.

18 people found this helpful

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Much needed

Reviewed in Australia on 29 March 2018

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Johann Hari has done it again: produced a very sane book on a touchy subject. Chasing the Scream is an excellent book about drugs. This book is excellent on the subject of depression. You can rely on this author to read the studies, interview the best people, synthesize the information intelligently and to present it clearly and engagingly.

His fundamental point is that for a variety of reasons we’ve been sold a pup re anti-depressants. He quotes Krishnamurti’s famous remark that it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to an unhealthy society. He leads us step by step through what’s wrong with our society and demonstrates that climbing rates of depression are in fact, an appropriate and sane response. Taking a pill - by and large - isn’t. As part of this argument, he explains why the “science” we’ve been sold on re SSRIs is in reality, very unconvincing. Big Pharma kept a lot of results (the less favourable ones) secret.

The final section concerns useful antidotes to what’s ailing us, and comes up with a few suggestions for changing our behaviour, including how we can think differently about our world. They range from private and personal things like meditation to the challenging idea - endorsed by President Obama - of instituting a universal basic wage.

This is a very important book. I’m going to recommend it all over the place. These ideas need to be shared.

4 people found this helpful

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BlueJeans

this book is fantastic!

Reviewed in Australia on 31 January 2018

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This book offers a refreshing (and compelling) take on depression, one you're unlikely to find elsewhere. Hari speaks with pioneering researchers who have investigated the causes of depression. The stories of the research -how they came about and were conducted- are themselves, fascinating. The findings, and their implications for those suffering from depression, invaluable. Much of it flies in the face of what big pharma would have us believe about the causes of depression (i.e. a chemical imbalance in the brain, and entirely fixable one at that. Ahem, anti depressant? Anyone? ). In actual fact, depression is, for many people a life problem, more than it is (just) a brain problem. The solution, it seems, are 'anti-depressants,' and not just the ones that come in a blister pack prescribed by a GP or other health professional. Honestly, this book is fantastic!

4 people found this helpful

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Rossleighbrisbane

Just because you like being on antidepressants doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it!

Reviewed in Australia on 27 February 2018

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Ok, I’m being a little provocative, but it seemed to work because you’re reading this. It’s not anti science or denying the need for some depressed people to take drugs, but it’s a great personal story, as well as having some interesting discussion points for everyone... even if you’re not depressed.

3 people found this helpful

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Robert Gambrill

Brilliant, refreshing and real insights into depression

Reviewed in Australia on 13 February 2018

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Hari's research seems thorough. This is the first book that covers what many of us have thought about depression but never had the research to back it up. The book is written with compassion which allows the reader to become immersed and wanting to further develop their understanding of the real complexities of this lifestyle condition. In the next book please take a similar approach to the understanding of chronic pain. Thanks for the insights!!

2 people found this helpful

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Peter

"Lost Connections" - ground-shaking and life-altering

Reviewed in Australia on 2 June 2018

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“Lost Connections” – a deeply insightful, thought-provoking, integrative, paradigm-shifting, and empowering book; rewarding to read, and transformative in nature. The ideas explored by Johann Hari could revolutionize the way we live, work and play. However, each of us first needs to better understand – not only the deeper layers to depression – but also how our modern epidemic of depression and anxiety are more a statement of the many dysfunctions rife in our modern societies. Dysfunctions that can be changed – if we start making different choices!

One person found this helpful

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Epiphanie Bloom

Innovative

Reviewed in Australia on 2 February 2018

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I never quite believed the chemical imbalance theory, and now I know why: my depression and anxiety comes from multiple hardships in my often harsh world.
I will now go out there and seek out new friendships, meditate, and spend more time in green spaces

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

phil harris

Easily the worst book I’ve read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 May 2019

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This book did at least relieve my depression momentarily by replacing it with feeling of intense irritation, turning into anger the more I read. What a long winded and patronising piece of plagiarism which adds nothing to the field.

The writing style caused the initial irritation. It’s like a TED talk extended to 10 hours. Endless formulaic personal stories that take a chapter to make a single point better suited to a sentence. And oh-so patronising, written in that dumbed down journalistic way that I find intensely insulting.

As I read more, it was the fraudulent self-congratulatory content that caused my increasing anger. That the author has the gall to claim he discovered 9 causes of depression (which are a rehash of bog standard theory known for decades) suggests his delusion and narcissism are much bigger issues than his depression. It’s no wonder then that he is a proven plagiarist. The real disgrace is the number of celebrity endorsements.

On a personal note, I disagree with his conclusions about blaming ‘society’. Take individual accountability and stop playing the victim.

My advice? Read the chapter headings on the free kindle sample as they tell you his whole message. Then look up the Human Givens approach which summarised this much better 20 years ago. And watch any Jordan Peterson YouTube clip on depression as it gives you far greater depth in 5 minutes from a trained clinical psychologist not a disgraced leftie hack.

175 people found this helpful

CloselyObservedEnglish

OR: "A Brief Guide to Depression"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 July 2018

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I've often wondered about depression. It seems to take so many forms, from people who are miserable because of their life situation, to those suffering the most excruciating grief over the loss of a loved one. How could it be that one 'illness' could show the same symptoms despite the massive variety of possible causes? How could all of this be because of a chemical imbalance in the brain? If I feel sad, does it mean that the same thing is going wrong with my brain as is happening to the brain of a woman who miscarries? It doesn't make sense.

In 'Lost Connections' Johann Hari looks at depression from the inside. His own diagnosis of clinical depression led him to taking antidepressants for years, yet he never seemed to truly recover. As he wondered why, he began to question the assumptions that we have made in the past hundred years as to what the causes of depression are, and what depression actually is. This enlightening book is the result of his research, and as a lay reader on the topic I found it fascinating. His conclusions can be summed up rather simply: how is it possible to live happily in a world designed to make us miserable? When we re-frame depression that way, we see that the drugs won't work, they'll just make it worse: reconnection, as the title implies, is the route we must follow to escape our unhappiness.

There are those who have written negative reviews of this book, and I can certainly sympathise with the them - for three reasons. Firstly, Hari calls into question a lot of what we take for granted, and when you are convinced that the solution to your depression lies in finding the right drug cocktail, being told that the drugs are unlikely to work at all can feel like a slap in the face. Secondly, some readers have long been aware of the research that Hari references; nothing in the book will come as a surprise to them. To those of us who have never before read up on this issue, however, the book serves its purpose very well, summarising what we know and what we don't know about depression. And third, the writing style is not perfect; it's what I would call 'Gladwell-lite.' There are too many attempts to make of the story a real narrative, which means backtracking again and again to introduce characters the 'proper' way. Doing this once or twice would be forgivable, but the fact that it happens dozens of times every chapter means that reading the book is sometimes more of a struggle than it should be.

Despite any slightly negative words that I might offer about this text, I really have no hesitation in recommending it to everyone out there who either has depression, or is wondering how they might help somebody with depression. There's useful stuff in here - perhaps not the stuff that everybody wants or will use, but if you dig around and look for what resonates, you might find a new approach to living within these pages.

193 people found this helpful

M. P. Bell

A practical guide to overcoming depression

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 October 2018

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This book takes a fresh, practical look at the causes of depression which are under our control. Hari gives a hopeful checklist - things we can change or improve in our everyday lives which have been shown to influence the likelihood of depression.
Take a look at this video summary.
My hesitations are:
He seems to miss out some causes such as repetitive thought (and hence mindfulness practice) and, curiously, adult trauma.

134 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

A very important book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 June 2018

Verified Purchase

This is a very powerful and important book. I heard an interview with the author on a podcast and was deeply moved by the stories he told about people around the world whose experiences offer a profound, challenging and paradigm-shifting perspective on the causes and solutions for depression and anxiety. Each chapter is beautifully written – the writing is compelling, actually – and has left me a lot to think about and implement. Depersonalising depression by talking about the societal causes for it is long overdue and for me, unbelievably helpful. People's brains aren't broken. Our pain is a messenger. The message? We badly need to reconnect. I wish everyon would read this book.

48 people found this helpful

Amazon Customer

READ THIS NOW

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 March 2018

Verified Purchase

I feel a few, even well chosen words, cannot do this work justice. This is hugely important book, I think ties together many strands that are beginning to haunt modern living. The beautiful thing is this book also points towards very real answers. Thank you SO MUCH for this book Johann- AMAZING.

43 people found this helpful

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