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0 pointswonderlust10y ago0 comments

As I read this, its not a hypothesis, nor is it a theory. Its just a long value statement about how to think about what's going on.

You can accept or ignore this, and it won't change the science at all.

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3 comments · 2 top-level

tim33310y ago· 1 in thread

As I read it

"Depression and anxiety are, for the large majority of cases, emotional signals that one’s psychological health is not ideal and that one’s psychosocial/relational needs are not being met."

looks like a theory and and experimentally testable and falsifiable one at that. Take a bunch of depressed people, try to fix their relationship needs along the lines mentioned in the article, survey the people who now have friends, get on with their family and so on and see if they are still depressed and compare to a control group. Simples.

wonderlustOP10y ago

Depression and anxiety are by definition not ideal physcological health.

And almost no ones social needs are ever truly completely met. we also know already that social support helps anxiety and depression regardless of whether it is a root cause. So your test wouldn't falsify if it returned a negative value, nor support with a positive correlation.

spangry10y ago

Fantastic comment. Medical history is replete with quack-theories and charlatans offering various cures. Blood-letting to balance the body's "humours" for example.

The wonderful thing about scientific progress is that it shrinks the space quacks and charlatans have to peddle their pet theories and cures.

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