Posted by Iansf on May 11, 2010, at 11:31:22
In reply to Re: Interesting article? What do you think?, posted by bulldog2 on May 9, 2010, at 14:30:25
Literature tells us very clearly that long-term depression has been common throughout history - and that mostly it did not get better but in fact often led to disastrous results. Hamlet was pretty obviously a suicidal depressive - and hardly anybody remains alive at the end of that play. If Prozac had been available, Anna Karenina wouldn't have thrown herself under a train and Mme Bovary wouldn't have taken poison. So much of our common cultural heritage is based in the inability of people to control their moods; their passions, whether love or hate, and obsessions got the better of them. While artists were able to point this out and identify both emotional excess and emotional vacancy as serious issues, few were able to point to viable solutions. The notion that depression is a modern illness is pure propaganda. Novelists, poets, playwrights and lyricists wouldn't have written about (and readers wouldn't have wanted to read about) so many sad and disturbed people if depression and other mood disorders had not been widespread.
poster:Iansf
thread:946874
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100504/msgs/947087.html