LIVING WITH A DEAD BATTERY: Depression: A Primer for Family and Professionals is well written, professionally presented and scientifically accurate. It is up to date on the most recent methods and instruments of professional intervention in this ubiquitous disorder. This work will become a necessary compendium for every therapist and pastor who engages in a counselling ministry. Such practitioners will see cases of depression, in a plethora of forms and disguises - psychological, somatic and spiritual - and in all probability such cases will constitute the majority of those who come seeking help and relief. Dr. Donald B. Smith is obviously knowledgeable of the purely medical and psychological elements of depression. He, in a very skillful and professional way and one that reflects years of clinical experience, refutes the lie which unfortunately is common among Evangelicals that all depression is a symptom of a spiritual problem and must be dealt with by spiritual or pseudo-spiritual means.
I have seen too many examples of patients suffering from depression, which was the result of purely psychological or physical causes, devastated by accusation and opinions that the disorder constituted evidence that there must be sin in the life of the suffering individual. Often there is nothing to confess and as result the individual feels abandoned by both God and man and becomes convinced that there is no available forgiveness. This eventuates in aggravation and deepening of the depressed state. We can be thankful that this author will not fall into this faux pas and has demonstrated that he has a forged clinical acumen. I am more than impressed with the author’s knowledge of the recent advances in psychiatric intervention, especially in the area of current medications. The intricacies of neuro-chemistry is a difficult field and this author has done a remarkable service for the busy pastor and therapist in rendering the area of modern chemical intervention in the form of anti-depressants and tranquilizers more easily understood and therefore more available.