[The multidimensionality of depression: a new model and five stories of experience]

Psychiatry benefits from a theoretical foundation that does justice to the various dimensions of psychiatric disorders. Recently, the philosopher Sanneke de Haan proposed a new integral model for psychiatric disorders.

Examining the applicability of De Haan’s model for depression.

Through a literature review, using five well-known reports of experienced depressions, I examine the applicability of De Haan's model.

Because of its multidimensional approach, and in particular its emphatic attention to the existential dimension of depression, De Haan’s model offers the possibility of getting a handle on the complex multiformity of depression.

De Haan’s model provides a good theoretical foundation for a psychiatric practice that does justice to the multidimensionality of psychiatric conditions such as depression.