Self-help attempts of depressive patients.
The paper, based on the theoretical analysis of the problem and a review of the pertinent literature, focuses on the following questions: Which behaviour patterns can be understood as self-healing attempts in depressive disorders? Are there any scientific findings with regard to the efficacy of such self-healing attempts? In which phase of a depression are such attempts being applied? Are self-healing techniques teachable and learnable? The label 'depressive disorders' covers not only brief and mild affective disturbances but also persistent severe depressions.