This small book is an organized summary of the author's previously published papers on the causes, energetics, and treatment of depression. It is written for the layman and for paramedical personnel. Using a combined medical and social approach, Ostow presents a multidisciplinary view of the 'depressive process'. An experienced clinician and investigator, he is equally 'at home' and knowledgeable in the fields of neurology, neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, psychiatry, psychopharmacology, psychoanalysis, and religion. The present volume is a logical extension of the author's previous endeavors to reconcile psychology and religion.1 He has long insisted on and tried to show '[how] … psychoanalytic principles can illuminate the whole of our lives, including religion', and '[how] … psychoanalysis is aimed at individual neurotic problems and religion at the unhappiness inherent in human life'.