Rumination: The attention pattern of depression?
Name of applicant
Victor Lange
Title
Researcher
Institution
University of Oslo
Amount
DKK 1,000,000
Year
2024
Type of grant
Internationalisation Fellowships
What?
This philosophy project investigates the nature of depression. Many researchers believe that rumination is a leading cause of depression. They approach rumination as an attention pattern. This postdoc project employs analytic tools from philosophy of attention to provide novel and needed insights into the role of rumination in depression.
Why?
WHO estimates that 5% of adults suffer from depression globally. This makes depression one of the biggest contributors to the global disease burden and rates seem to increase in many countries. There is a pressing need for developing current treatment procedures. This project contributes to psychotherapeutic protocols that target attention control and metacognitive dynamics in depression.
How?
The project investigates four important questions: (1) What exactly does the rumination explanation of depression claim and to what degree does current evidence support this claim? (2) Is the rumination of depression a controlled or an automatic form of attention? (3) Is it always irrational to ruminate? (4) Why do certain societal structures make individuals more prone to depression?