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Depression can leave people feeling mentally ‘stuck’ in recurring negative thoughts, even when structured tests do not fully capture the problem. Using Munch’s Melancholy as a visual entry point, we argue that difficulty disengaging and working-memory discarding may sustain rumination, and that assessment should better capture these processes.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the MUNCH museum for guidance on image reproduction.
Funding
K.H. is funded by a research grant of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO, grant number G0A2425N).
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The authors declare no competing interests.
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Nature Mental Health thanks Aaron K. Kucyi and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Stubberud, J., Hoorelbeke, K. When thinking gets stuck: rumination and cognitive disengagement in depression. Nat. Mental Health (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00699-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44220-026-00699-1
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