Depression before 20th century

[iHeartCats]

If I'm not mistaken, I haven't seen the existence of depression as an illness as well as the term "depression" mentioned before 20th century.

Does that mean that people weren't depressed before 20th century, or did it exist back then but couldn't be diagnosed? Was it commonly diagnosed as something else then? Like an extremely melancholic temperament (according to the theory of 4 temperaments) or something like that?

 

[flower]

I think people have always been depressed in some way, it's like saying you couldn't have a flu back then. Okey, it's not the best way to describe it but... This is very interesting, though! I think people were misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all. Like if you were schizophrenic for example, maybe they thought the person was cursed or something? Seeing demons etc. I don't know how it could have been with the depression.

 

[ZcM4xzkjgzCjytBc]

Does that mean that people weren't depressed before 20th century, or did it exist back then but couldn't be diagnosed?

I think it means that depression is a luxury.

 

[La Sagna]

There is plenty of evidence and references to depression before the 20th century. It was often called melancholia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_depression

 

[Stu]

may be it is because depression is actually a symptom.

 

[Delta]

I have come across early writers who describe staying in bed for long periods - but seem to have used the phase as an act of creativity.

 

[Solongo]

Probably the need to survive did not lend hand to one's thoughts about whether life was mistreating them or not. There was no room for complacency and leisure that give rise to need for entitlement and following a higher purpose. It was an environment of immediate need to survive on the most basic fundamental level. Similar to maslow's 1st level pertaining to Hierarchy of Human potential and development - people were too busy trying to survive than to sit around worrying about their emotional well being. Survival comes before self understanding or self analysis.

 

[sprinkles]

It existed but was called something else (melancholia) as [MENTION=9809]La Sagna[/MENTION] rightly points out.

The idea of four temperaments relating to four humors goes back to at least 400 BC. The four temperaments are choleric, melancholic, sanguine and phlegmatic, and were believed to be caused by the humors - four different kinds of bodily fluid. Melancholy was supposedly caused by excess black bile and it was believed that black bile can cause one to be despondant.

So yes the concept of depression existed since melancholia was seen as a disorder causing despondent mood without any reason to feel sad.