Temporal inabilities and decision-making capacity in depression

Gareth S. Owen

Fabian Freyenhagen

Matthew Hotopf

Wayne Martin

pp. 163-182

in: Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences 14 (1), 2015.

Abstract

We report on an interview-based study of decision-making capacity in two classes of patients suffering from depression. Developing a method of second-person hermeneutic phenomenology, we articulate the distinctive combination of temporal agility and temporal inability characteristic of the experience of severely depressed patients. We argue that a cluster of decision-specific temporal abilities is a critical element of decision-making capacity, and we show that loss of these abilities is a risk factor distinguishing severely depressed patients from mildly/moderately depressed patients. We explore the legal and clinical consequences of this result.