NONFICTION - April 9, 1995

UNDERCURRENTS: A Therapist’s Reckoning With Depression by Martha Manning (HarperSan Francisco: $20; 224 pp.) In January of 1990, psychologist Martha Manning had a somewhat normal, albeit hectic, life. On top of a busy teaching schedule, busy practice and busy social life, she was also active in her church and had a family. With good humor, Manning recounts wanting to be the type of person who has “bathrooms that are clean enough so that when people drop by unexpectedly, I don’t have to worry that they might have to pee.” Then, with little warning, everything begins to fall apart.

“Depression carries no papers. It enters your country unannounced and uninvited. Its origins are unknown, but its destination always dead-ends in you.” With a brilliant combination of wit, insight, irony and despair, Manning chronicles her battle with a clinical depression so severe that she agreed to be hospitalized and undergo ECT, or electroconvulsive therapy.

For readers interested in technical or spiritual information and ideas, “Undercurrents” is not your book. Many questions--such as why ECT works, whether people who are prone to depression are benefiting the species in a unique way, and how God fits into the picture--are never really addressed. However, for readers interested in an intelligent, engrossing story of one woman’s fight against darkness, “Undercurrents” is absolutely as good as it gets.