Mental Depression

The popular MSNBC host talks about her start in broadcasting, her life and her new book Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power, in which she argues that America's national defense has become disconnected from public oversight.

Lars von Trier's Melancholia stars Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg as sisters who undergo a psychological transformation as disaster approaches. Critic David Edelstein says the film is a sublime fusion of form and content with a truly Wagnerian climax. (Recommended)

The actress stars in Lars von Trier's new psychological drama Melancholia, about depression and the end of the world. She talks about making the film and about working with Von Trier, whose controversial remarks about Hitler got him kicked out of this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Anesthesiologist Emery Brown explains what physicians know — and what they don't know — about the effects of anesthesia. Unlocking its mysteries, he says, will help scientists better understand consciousness and sleep — and could lead to better treatments for pain, sleep disorders and depression.

Jonathan Franzen's new novel Freedom has been called "a masterpiece" by Time Magazine and has received rave reviews from critics. Franzen talks about the runaway success of his previous novel The Corrections, and the strong reaction elicited by Freedom.

Tom Ford has put his creative sensibilities to work in the service of a Christopher Isherwood tale: A Single Man, which marks Ford's big-screen directorial debut.

Charles Reynolds teaches at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and directs research into late-life mood disorders; now he has co-written a book about depression in the elderly and how to treat it. It's titled Living Longer Depression Free: A Family Guide to Recognizing, Treating, and Preventing Depression in Later Life.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Styron died Wednesday of pneumonia at the age of 81. Styron's books include Lie Down in Darkness, The Confessions of Nat Turner (which won the Pulitzer) and Sophie's Choice, which was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Meryl Streep. His memoir Darkness Visible detailed his struggles with depression and suicidal impulses. This interview originally aired on Sept. 19, 1990.

Former gubernatorial first lady Kitty Dukakis and writer Larry Tye discuss their new book, Shock: The Healing Power of Electroconvulsive Therapy. Dukakis, the wife of former Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis, battled depression for over 20 years. She says electroconvulsive therapy dramatically changed her life for the better.

Writer Andrew Solomon. His book on depression, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, (Scribner) just won a National Book Award. The work came out of a 1998 New Yorker article. He draws on personal experience as well as interviews with patients, physicians, philosophers and drug designers.