RT Journal
A1 Fleisher MH
T1 American melancholy: Constructions of depression in the twentieth century
JF JAMA
JO JAMA
YR 2010
FD August 25
VO 304
IS 8
SP 907
OP 908
DO 10.1001/jama.2010.1211
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1211
AB 
In American Melancholy, medical historian and psychiatrist Laura Hirshbein has written an interesting, useful, and exceptionally readable review of the evolution of the idea of depression as a diagnosis in the United States, demonstrating how this seemingly narrow topic has broader implications regarding research, social identification, and clinical care when gender has been one of the basic elements. I did not find this work aggressively critical, as could easily have been the case. Using her expertise as a clinician and historian, the author has brought together overviews of various topics that the reader may find compelling or enlightening.