History Summary

The evolution of the condition of depression and the ideas surrounding it evolved very closely with western thought and can be divided into five stages: the ancient age, the Dark and Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries and the modern age. Although it is common to believe that depression is a modern ailment, this could not be further from the truth. Depression has actually been identified as far back as ancient times. Depression was referred to as "melancholia" until the term "depression" was first used to describe "low spirits" in 1660. Although treatments for depression varied greatly throughout history, the symptoms remained very much the same throughout.

In ancient times, the Greeks believed in a sound mind and sound body; therefore, if one was of unsound mind (in this case, depressed), then this must also mean this person was of unsound...