As described by a recent article on scientific american... depression may be the evolutionary approach to serious analytical problem solving?
Theory... we get depressed because we have a problem we need to sit down and solve. Ruminating over it directs our energy/resources towards this problem. Then once the solution is found, the depression goes away. If this is true... does it point to cognitive therapy being a "better" treatment than antidepressants? That is, resolve the problem rather than covering up the symptoms?
Depression's Evolutionary Roots: Scientific American
The invention of the printing press in 1440 gave rise to the dream of universal literacy.
So to realise this dream we compelled children by State Law to leave their parents and the comfort of their homes and go to special institutions with specially trained staff in order to learn to read and write.
And as print is linear and sequential, we learnt to perceive the world in a linear and sequential fashion.
And linear and sequential thinking led to the assembly line and the industrial revolution.
Unfortunately linear and sequential thinking is not intuitive but counter-intuitive. And so through the industrial revolution we lost touch with our intuitive self in the, "dark satanic mills".
And losing touch with our intuitive self we drive ourselves relentlessly like an assembly line. So it is no wonder we have an epidemic of Clinical Depression.
However in 1840 the electric telegraph was invented.
And whereas literacy is entirely counter-intuitive, the electronic media such as the telegraph, the telephone and the television are entirely intuitive.
Absolutely no one is compelled by State Law to attend a special institution to learn to use the telephone or television.
We all learn to use the telephone and television intuitively at home.
But although, "the dark satanic mills", are closing in the First World, we still retain the habits of thought we learnt at school to prepare us to work in, "the dark satanic mills". So it is no wonder we are still dogged by the Black Dog.
And dare I say that Satan may well take the form of the Black Dog.
However we can regain our balance and our joie de vivre by practising l'alternance.
And l'alternance can be practised on the telephone, on Skype, by reading aloud that joyful book, "Wind in the Willows", turn and turn about.
What greater contrast could there be but between the River Bank and the Dark Satanic Mills.
One is joy, the other depression.