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Namah Notes on counselling

today is a relatively new phenomenon in the is concerned with cognition and executes
history of human consciousness. its action through a complex of intertwined
intelligence and will-power. The vital plane
Depression as a disease has to be carefully in between is the repertoire of emotions,
differentiated from the normal emotional passions, dynamism and desires. It holds in
fluctuations to life’s adversities which its bosom contradictory moods and conflicting
have adaptive value, alert individuals and emotions, a reason why a state of depression
the immediate social group. In depression can alternate with a state of mania in bipolar
as a disease, the protective and adaptive subjects. As the vital plane simultaneously
value of the mood is degraded. Unlike the contains both the contradictory elements
normal depressive mood in usual episodes of sadness and aggression, depression in
of sadness that occurs not too infrequently children can manifest through aggression as
in life, subjects suffering from depressive long as they are unable to cognise depression.
illness may have such episodes unconnected
with any distressing life-event; may have The three planes of consciousness are actually
associated anxiety that is too distressing; have intertwined in the individual so that there
a persistently painful state of anguish; harbour are various combinations of the planes. As
feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, low each individual is unique, so depression can
self-esteem, guilt-feeling and death wishes; manifest in each individual through different
express somatic symptoms, hormonal dys- combinations of the planes of consciousness.
regulation and rhythm disturbances. Actually, even if disequilibrium primarily
originates in one plane, the other planes
Depressive disorders can in many cases also get involved more or less in accordance
switch to the other extreme manic phase of with the uniqueness of each individual.
grandiosity, over-confidence, pompousness, The uniqueness may be skewed towards
aggression and frankly psychotic activities. temperamental factors, personality varia-
Thus depression has not only a unipolar but bles, biological vulnerability, genetic predisp-
also a bipolar presentation. osition, cultural identity or societal norms and
vary from individual to individual.
A Consciousness world-view
There are two types of individuals in whom
In the consciousness world-view, depression the depression that originates on the vital
is assessed along different planes of con- plane manifests significantly on the physical
sciousness. Of the three basic planes of con- plane. The first is the rather rustic prototype
sciousness, which have both universal and more concerned with physical existence and
individual representations, the fluctuations less concerned with the finer nuances of
of the mood that lead to both depression and life. The physical expression of depression
its polar opposite, mania, arise in the plane is very marked in such instances. The
of life-energy or the vital plane. The physical second type is either the intellectual or the
plane is the one that holds the material aesthetic individual who has not worked out
substrate of the body. The mental plane is a harmony between different planes of the
non-material; it represents the realm of ideas, being. Thus an intellectual or a scholar who

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