Dr. O'Connor explains this and goes on to recommend Feeling Good as a good resource . Undoing Depression also explains the other ways depression can occur and gives many ways to attack this vicious disease. As I understand it, many mental health professionals believe that feelings and emotions come first and they lead to the distortions in thinking.
But whichever comes first I have found both books by O'Connor (his new Active Treatment of Depression and Undoing Depression) and also the Feeling Good series by Burns to be helpful. When I contacted Dr. O'Connor's pages for advice for family members, he also recommended When Someone You Love Is Depressed.
However, the downside of the book is simply that this "new" theory is, in fact, not new. The author's philosophy that un-doing depression by replacing depressive patterns of thinking and behaving with a more effective set of skills, is sound, practical advice. However, his theory of taking responsibility for your own actions, acknowledging your feelings, and sharing what is troubling you by improving your communication skills has been promoted by many health care and holistic professionals for several years now. It is a theory I, personally, have taught in stress management classes for years. The words may vary, but the same message can be found in many existing self-help books, inspirational books, stress management books and text books. Severe or chronic depression requires professional therapy and often medication, but holistic methods are certainly useful in certain cases. I gave the book a three star rating for its sound content, but the book also lost two stars in the rating because the message was extremely repetitious of many other books. There was simply nothing new here to grab the reader's attention.