• Philosoraptor [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    One possible interpretation here is that "depression" is a cluster term that describes symptoms rather than pathologies. Something similar is true of (among other things) psychosis, which is a symptomatic cluster that can have a broad spectrum of proximal causes.

    Philosophy of mind isn't my specialty, but I know enough about it to have a strong suspicion that in another few decades, we're going to view diagnoses like "depression" similarly to how we view 19th century diagnoses of "hysteria" now: clusters of symptoms that were complex, multifarious, and socially influenced in both etiology and appropriate treatment.