Studies at the University of Pennsylvania have shown that people who are depressed see the world equal to how they think and feel. If we show two different pictures rapid-fire to depressed people and to a control group of normal people—one a scene of people feasting at a table and one a funeral scene—and ask them which they remember, the depressives will remember the coffin scene at percentages greater than chance. They seem to perceive their environment in a way that continuously reinforces how they feel.6
