How can individuals grow their own resilience to prevent mood disorders? What are society-based systems and policies that minimize mental health risks and promote the prevention of mental illness? This course will explore the complexity of preventing mental illness, specifically the mood disorders of depression, anxiety, and PTSD, in the US. We will use an interdisciplinary approach to explore the challenges that researchers, clinicians, and policy-makers face in preventing mood disorders. Through a mix of readings including the popular press, social media, academic articles, memoir, and self-exploration texts; reflection and active seminars; field trips to view ‘outsider art’; and homework on building personal and communal resilience, students will work on two underlying complex problems: how to integrate individual and systemic responsibility for mental wellness and how people change.