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The cover of Lost Connections

Lost Connections

Johann Hari, 2018

Why depression and anxiety track disconnection from meaningful work, other people, values, status, nature and a hopeful future, what the evidence says about antidepressants, and how reconnecting has helped people.

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24 parts, about 35 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Traces how the chemical imbalance story of depression took hold and weighs it against trial data on antidepressants and the placebo effect
  • Names nine causes of depression and anxiety, seven of them disconnections from things people need, such as meaningful work, other people or nature
  • Offers seven kinds of reconnection, from social prescribing and a worker owned cooperative to meditation and basic income, as early evidence, not a program

Who it is for

  • Readers who have taken or considered antidepressants
  • People feeling stuck in meaningless work or lonely lives
  • Readers curious why depression and anxiety keep rising

What the summary covers

  1. Introduction: A Mystery2 min
  2. The Wand2 min
  3. Imbalance2 min
  4. The Grief Exception1 min
  5. The First Flag on the Moon2 min
  6. Picking Up the Flag1 min
  7. Cause One: Disconnection from Meaningful Work2 min
  8. Cause Two: Disconnection from Other People2 min
  9. Cause Three: Disconnection from Meaningful Values2 min
  10. Cause Four: Disconnection from Childhood Trauma2 min
  11. Cause Five: Disconnection from Status and Respect1 min
  12. Cause Six: Disconnection from the Natural World1 min
  13. Cause Seven: Disconnection from a Hopeful or Secure Future1 min
  14. Causes Eight and Nine: The Real Role of Genes and Brain Changes1 min
  15. The Cow1 min
  16. We Built This City2 min
  17. Reconnection One: To Other People1 min
  18. Reconnection Two: Social Prescribing2 min
  19. Reconnection Three: To Meaningful Work1 min
  20. Reconnection Four: To Meaningful Values1 min
  21. Reconnection Five: Sympathetic Joy, and Overcoming Addiction to the Self2 min
  22. Reconnection Six: Acknowledging and Overcoming Childhood Trauma1 min
  23. Reconnection Seven: Restoring the Future1 min
  24. Conclusion: Homecoming1 min

Recommended by

  • Naomi KleinAuthor of The Shock Doctrine
    I am utterly convinced that the more people read this book, the better off the world will be
  • Matt HaigAuthor of Reasons to Stay Alive
    A brilliant, stimulating, radical take on mental health
  • Brian EnoMusician and record producer
    A highly personal book, written with humility, humour and candour, it nonetheless heralds a crucial new discussion about our mental health
  • Emma ThompsonActress and screenwriter
    An exquisitely lucid treatise on why no person is, has been or ever should be an island.
  • George MonbiotColumnist for The Guardian
    This is an astonishing book, that transforms our understanding of one of the crucial issues of our times.
  • Glenn GreenwaldJournalist and author
    Johann Hari follows his ground-breaking and revolutionary book on addiction with an equally vital, compelling and eye-opening examination of the myths we have been taught to believe about depression and anxiety.
  • Bill MaherHost of Real Time with Bill Maher
    Johann Hari is again getting people to think differently about our mood, our minds and our drug use, and that is something we need a lot more of
  • Eve EnslerAuthor of The Vagina Monologues
    It is a brave, moving, brilliant, simple and earth-shattering book that must be read by everyone and anyone who is longing for a life of meaning and connection
  • Thomas FrankAuthor of What's the Matter with Kansas?
    Depression and anxiety are the maladies of our time, but not for the reasons you think.
  • Jemima KhanFilm and television producer
    A beautiful book from the person that brilliantly once said “the opposite of addiction is connection” and who now explores and offers some solutions to our disconnection
  • Max PembertonPsychiatrist and newspaper columnist
    This is an extraordinary, elegant exploration of a timely problem.
  • Elton JohnSinger and composer
    If you have ever been down, or felt lost, this amazing book will change your life.
  • Hillary ClintonFormer US Secretary of State
    Lost Connections offers a wonderful and incisive analysis of the depression and alienation that are haunting American society
  • Arianna HuffingtonFounder of HuffPost
    This is a bold and inspiring book that will help far more than just those who suffer from depression.

About the author

  • Johann HariBritish writer and journalist
    • Born in Glasgow, Scotland, and raised in London from the age of one
    • His father, a Swiss immigrant, was a bus driver, and his mother was a nurse who later worked in shelters for survivors of domestic violence
    • Studied Social and Political Science at King's College, Cambridge, and graduated with a Double First
    • Twice named National Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International
    • Until 2011 he wrote for The Independent, then resigned after admitting to plagiarism and fabrications dating back to 2001
    • His earlier book Chasing the Scream was adapted into the Oscar nominated film The United States vs. Billie Holiday
    • By his own account, Lost Connections was called one of the most important texts of recent years by the British Journal of General Practice and was shortlisted for a British Medical Association award
    • By his own count his TED talks have been viewed more than 93 million times, including Facebook views

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperBrain Energy

    Johann Hari argues that depression and anxiety mainly come from how we live, and that these causes can change the brain; Christopher Palmer proposes, as a hypothesis, that social experience becomes biological through stress systems, sleep and metabolism.

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