ABSTRACT
Depression is not a recent phenomenon. Although descriptions of conditions resembling depression can be found in the Old Testament of the Bible, it was Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C. who hypothesized that melancholia stemmed from an imbalance of black bile. Even more modern conceptions of depression were suggested by Aretaeus of Cappadocia around 120 A.D., who described melancholia as being characterized by sadness, a tendency toward suicide, feelings of indifference, and psychomotor agitation. It was not until the early 20th century that theorists such as Abraham (1911-1960) and Freud (1856-1939) began to recognize the importance of psychological and emotional factors in the development of depression.
