Helping depressed clients reconnect to positive emotion experience: current insights and future directions

A deficit in the ability to experience pleasure (anhedonia) is one of the core symptoms of depression. However, therapy to date has predominantly focused on understanding elevations in negative emotion experience in depression and relatively neglected ways to reconnect individuals to positive experience. This article reviews current insights into blunted positivity in depression, evaluating evidence that depression leads to disturbances in anticipation (positive emotion experience when approaching a goal or a rewarding stimulus) and consummation (positive emotion experience when attaining a goal or rewarding stimulus), as well as impaired positive emotion recognition. The case is made that existing treatments are only partially effective and that therapy outcomes are likely to be improved by focusing on augmenting positivity, capitalizing on emerging insights from positive affective neuroscience. Existing and emerging therapeutic techniques that may aid the promotion of positivity are critiqued, and some suggestions for future research and clinical practice are outlined.