Depressed minds, diverse souls: transcultural aspects of depression

Abstract

The incidence and variety of depression across nations and cultures have been matters of quite considerable interest for some centuries, and attention was drawn to a few points of interest in Chapter 1. Paralleling the interest in the rise of the mentally handicapped in the period immediately after the French Revolution (Mahendra, 1985c) was an interest in the increase in mental illness generally and, as it then appeared, the racial variation in rates of disorder. In 1820, Burrows paid attention to this in a climate in which considerable interest had been generated by George III’s madness. There did not appear to be an absolute increase in the numbers of the insane when Burrows studied case registers and hospital superintendents’ reports, but the subjects in the constituent countries in the kingdom apparently displayed different rates. The relatively lower incidence among the Scots was put down to their moral fervour and intellectual character, and the relatively high prevalence in the hapless Irish was put down to the widespread use of alcohol, and the deprivation their country suffered from.