A Living Hell. Part 1.

Devised and presented by Prof. Lewis Wolpert (University College, London), this series was inspired by his own experience of severe depression. The first episode opens with a view of Saneline counsellors at work. Prof. Wolpert now realises how difficult it is for people to understand the sufferings of the clinically depressed. He visits the psychiatrist who treated him at the Royal Free Hospital, London, and they discuss his own experience of the condition. Two women describe their different experiences of clinical depression and their strategies for fighting it. Dr. Aaron Beck (Philadelphia) and Dr. Joe Herbert (Univ. of Cambridge) discuss the psychology and brain physiology of depression and Prof. Peter McGuffin (Univ. of Wales) discusses his research into the genetic inheritance of depression which includes studies of identical twins and of a colony of rhesus monkeys. Experimental work with children aimed at disclosing insecurity is also shown, as it is thought that childhood insecurity can be a factor in adult depression.