On this page you will find a variety of resources to do with the history of mental illness as well as some terminology which may assist you in searching for further resources.
The Empire of Depression by
Depression has colonized the world. Today, more than 300 million of us have been diagnosed as depressed. But 150 years ago, "depression" referred to a mood, not a sickness. Does that mean people weren't sick before, only sad? Of course not. Mental illness is a complex thing, part biological, part social, its definition dependent on time and place. But in the mid-twentieth century, even as European empires were crumbling, new Western clinical models and treatments for mental health spread across the world. In so doing, "depression" began to displace older ideas like "melancholia," the Japanese "utsushō," or the Punjabi "sinking heart" syndrome. Award-winning historian Jonathan Sadowsky tells this global story, chronicling the path-breaking work of psychiatrists and pharmacists, and the intimate sufferings of patients. Revealing the continuity of human distress across time and place, he shows us how different cultures have experienced intense mental anguish, and how they have tried to alleviate it. He reaches an unflinching conclusion: the devastating effects of depression are real. A number of treatments do reduce suffering, but a permanent cure remains elusive. Throughout the history of depression, there have been overzealous promoters of particular approaches, but history shows us that there is no single way to get better that works for everyone. Like successful psychotherapy, history can liberate us from the negative patterns of the past.
The weariness of the self diagnosing the history of depression in the contemporary age by
Depression, once a subfield of neurosis, has become the most diagnosed mental disorder in the world. Why and how has depression become such a topical illness and what does it tell us about changing ideas of the individual and society? Alain Ehrenberg investigates the history of depression and depressive symptoms across twentieth-century psychiatry, showing that identifying depression is far more difficult than a simple diagnostic distinction between normal and pathological sadness - the one constant in the history of depression is its changing definition. Drawing on the accumulated knowledge of a lifetime devoted to the study of the individual in modern democratic society, Ehrenberg shows that the phenomenon of modern depression is not a construction of the pharmaceutical industry but a pathology arising from inadequacy in a social context where success is attributed to, and expected of, the autonomous individual. In so doing, he provides both a novel and convincing description of the illness that clarifies the intertwining relationship between its diagnostic history and changes in social norms and values. The first book to offer both a global sociological view of contemporary depression and a detailed description of psychiatric reasoning and its transformation - from the invention of electroshock therapy to mass consumption of Prozac - The Weariness of the Self offers a compelling exploration of depression as social fact.
From Melancholia to Prozac: A History of Depression by
Depression is an experience known to millions. But arguments rage on aspects of its definition and its impact on societies present and past: do drugs work, or are they merely placebos? Is the depression we have today merely a construct of the pharmaceutical industry? Is depression under- orover-diagnosed? Should we be paying for expensive "talking cure" treatments like psychoanalysis or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy?Here, Clark Lawlor argues that understanding the history of depression is important to understanding its present conflicted status and definition. While it is true that our modern understanding of the word "depression" was formed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the conditionwas originally known as melancholia, and characterised by core symptoms of chronic causeless sadness and fear. Beginning in the Classical period, and moving on to the present, Lawlor shows both continuities and discontinuities in the understanding of what we now call depression, and in the way ithas been represented in literature and art. Different cultures defined and constructed melancholy and depression in ways sometimes so different as to be almost unrecognisable.Even the present is still a dynamic history, in the sense that the "new" form of depression, defined in the 1980s and treated by drugs like Prozac, is under attack by many theories that reject the biomedical model and demand a more humanistic idea of depression - one that perhaps returns us to aform of melancholy.
The Oxford Handbook of Mood Disorders by
The most comprehensive volume of its kind, The Oxford Handbook of Mood Disorders provides detailed coverage of the characterization, understanding, and treatment of mood disorders. Chapters are written by the world's leading experts in their respective areas. The Handbook provides coverage ofunipolar depression, bipolar disorder, and variants of these disorders. Current approaches to classifying the mood disorders are reviewed and contemporary controversies are placed in historical context. Chapter authors offer a variety of approaches to understanding the heterogeneity of theexperiences of those who meet criteria for mood disorders, both within and across cultures. The role of genetic and environmental risk factors as well as premorbid personality and cognitive processes in the development of mood pathology are detailed. Interpersonal, neurobiological, and psychologicalfactors also receive detailed consideration.The volume reviews mood disorders in special populations (e.g., postpartum and seasonal mood disorders) as well as common comorbidities (e.g., anxiety, substance use disorders). Somatic and psychosocial treatment approaches receive in-depth coverage with chapters that describe and review empiricalevidence regarding each of the most influential treatment approaches. The depth and breadth offered by this Handbook make it an invaluable resource for clinicians and researchers, as well as scholars and students.
Reinventing depression a history of the treatment of depression in primary care, 1940-2004 by 
The Routledge History of Madness and Mental Health by Many psychiatric hospitals kept records of their patients, below are some archival guides and catalogues to various collections of psychiatric hospital records: