Ruminative Tendencies

Andrews and Thomson struck up an extended conversation on the evolutionary roots of depression. They began by focusing on the thought process that defines the disorder, which is known as rumination....

The bleakness of this thought process helps explain why, according to the Yale psychologist Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, people with “ruminative tendencies” are more likely to become depressed. ... Because rumination hijacks the stream of consciousness — we become exquisitely attentive to our pain — numerous studies have found that depressed subjects struggle to think about anything else, just like Wallace’s character. The end result is poor performance on tests for memory and executive function, especially when the task involves lots of information. (These deficits disappear when test subjects are first distracted from their depression and thus better able to focus on the exercise.) Such research has reinforced the view that rumination is a useless kind of pessimism, a perfect waste of mental energy.
-- http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t.html?pagewanted=2
"Depression's Upside," NYT, JONAH LEHRER, Published: February 25, 2010

Oh. This is my blogging. I suspected it was a perfect waste of mential energy, but i hadn't quite gotten to giving it a name.

via nellorat, who actually had interesting things to say about the article.