Ontelly

Medicalising Melancholy

Logo for Medicalising Melancholy

Mary Kenny reflects on the growth of depression as a serious global illness and questions the medicalising of states of mind which were once regarded as part of normal human experience. Is it time to reclaim some of the traditional language associated with melancholy or must an ever increasing number of mental conditions be treated as a form of illness susceptible to treatment with drugs? Producer: Sheila Cook.