Simply put, the way we perceive the world is the way we respond to the world. If our cognition of life is negative, our thoughts, feelings, and actions will be negative. Depression distorts perception. The depressed person perceives life through a glass darkly. A depressive illness colors how a person thinks, feels, and acts toward a spouse, lover, friend, boss, co-worker, parent, or child.
Troubled relationships are the rule in depression.
Interpersonal Therapy was developed by psychiatrist Gerald Klerman, M.D., of Harvard, and psychologist Myrna Weissman, Ph.D., of Yale as a short-term therapy to help people identify and resolve their difficulties with others. Interpersonal Psychotherapy of Depression is the book written by Dr. Klerman and Dr. Weissman. Whereas Cognitive Therapy focuses on perception and reaction to those perceptions, Interpersonal Therapy lays an extra emphasis on communication skills. Both Cognitive and Interpersonal Therapy deal with your habits of thought, feeling, and behavior as they are now, not what happened somewhere back then in your childhood. The origin of the pattern is not as important as the pattern itself and how to turn that pattern into one that elevates rather than depresses.