Thoughts on Martin Lloyd Jones’s Spiritual Depression for actual depression
I want to push back on the frequent recommendation of MLJ’s Spiritual Depression for people with clinical depression.
As someone who’s had chronic depression that was eventually treated with medication, I was recommended this book. I see a lot of people on this sub say it’s good, and I think it’s a good general book for people going through a period of spiritual dryness. But I have to say it’s not good for people with real clinical depression.
Reading it felt extremely uncomfortable because it seems to completely mischaracterize depression. Maybe that’s why MLJ called it “spiritual depression,” but he doesn’t seem to be limiting it to that, since he explicitly brings up Major Depressive Disorder symptoms and Spurgeon.
IMO I really have to agree with this review: https://psychiatryresource.com/bookreviews/spiritual-depression-review especially on how it seems tone-deaf and even potentially stigmatizing toward people with real depression.
But I wanted to hear your thoughts on this.