“The medical psychiatrist Dr. Dominique Meggle points out in his talk at an International  symposium on depression in Rome  that modern man, who is individualistic, is enough for himself.  He boasts of being a nomad. He does not admit that changes can modify him. He does not have exchanges; he has experiences that are sufficient for him to continue – at the same level – sex, food, or music.  Upholding his freedom and sincerity of his feelings, he has replaced being with having. He consumes and after gaining enjoyment he feels sad. Pornography spreads in all directions. It shows a form of sexuality to us that is northing else but a consumer good. The modern form of this widespread depression has neither a biological nor a psychological cause. It is a form of depression that springs from something higher. It is a form of depression that comes from the removal of a meaning of existence: it is what Victor Frankel calls “nooegensis neurosis of existential depression.”  It belongs in the sphere of the mind and shows that a society that replaces being with having in a systematic   way produces a whole series of depressed people. It makes them mad. The removal of meaning disturbs the human psyche and human cerebral biology.

  In this case the good news takes two forms: On the one hand, we have the experimental proof that in order to function correctly the human being needs values and to be able to give meaning to his or her life. We can no longer deny the fact. It is in front of our very eyes. Given that we have done nearly everything that we should not have done, by exclusion we now know that what we  have to do to escape from the pandemic of man, his freedom, his values, his search for meaning but also his sense of responsibility, once again at the center   and the summit  of the whole of social, economics and political life.”

SOURCES: Copyright(c) I’ll do  it when I feel better. Hugh S., (2014) Depressed Anonymous Publications. Louisville. Pages 93-94.

And the reference taken from the following essay:

 Establishing Social Ties in a society that is broken down and devastated by individualism. Meggle, Dominique. In Dolentium Humani: Christ and Health in the World. From the Proceedings of the XVIII International Conference on Depression. Journal of the Pontifical Council  for Health/Pastoral Care. Nov. 13-15. 2004. Rome.