From Melancholia to Depression: Disordered Mood in Nineteenth-Century Psychiatry [Hardcover]

This open access book maps a crucial but neglected chapter in the history of psychiatry: how was melancholia transformed in the nineteenth century from traditional melancholy madness into a modern biomedical mood disorder, paving the way for the emergence of clinical depression as a psychiatric illness in the twentieth century? At a time when the prevalence of mood disorders and antidepressant consumption are at an all-time high, the need for a comprehensive historical understanding of how modern depressive illness came into being has never been more urgent. This book addresses a significant gap in existing scholarly literature on melancholia, depression, and mood disorders by offering a contextualised and critical perspective on the history of melancholia in the first decades of psychiatry, from the 1830s until the turn of the twentieth century. 

A thought-provoking read, the book draws on a range of sources, including medical and psychiatric textbooks, lunacy commission records, asylum records, and journal articles, to demonstrate how melancholia was made into a modern biomedical mood disorder. & Jansson's work provides a timely, fresh, and important contribution to the history of psychiatry and mental health more broadly. (Lynsey Cullen, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, July, 2021)

At a time when the prevalence of mood disorders and antidepressant consumption are at an all-time high, tlS,