When was or who established the modern concept of depression? Is there a major author on this? I located a Robert Burton in 1621 England, who wrote "Anatomy of Melancholy", but melancholy is not well defined as depression nowadays, isn't it? So, is there a classic text on depression as the mental disorder we know today? Or when was depression established as a mental disorder?

-- Vladimir Escalante Ramírez (v.escalante@astrosmo.unam.mx), March 22, 2004

Answers

You can find quite a bit on this on the internet by using the search phrases "depression history melancholy." A good example is the following, which may steer you to more professional published resources http://www.priory.com/homol/dephist.htm

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@earthlink.net), March 25, 2004.