This article reports on an interview-based study of decision-making capacity in two classes of patients suffering from depression. Developing a method of second-person hermeneutic phenomenology, we articulate the distinctive combination of temporal agility and temporal inability characteristic of the experience of severely depressed patients.
We argue that a cluster of decision-specific temporal abilities is a critical element of decision-making capacity, and we show that loss of these abilities is a risk factor distinguishing severely depressed patients from mildly/moderately depressed patients. We explore the legal and clinical consequences of this result.

Subjects
Decision MakingHow to cite this document:
(2013) Temporal inabilities and decision-making capacity in depression. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 14(1): 163-182.