Depression became defined as whatever antidepressants cured

Evidence

The temptation was obviously strong to resort to the ever so practical therapeutic proof: the “true” depression was that on which antidepressants had an effect. This led to the tendency to reserve depression for antidepressants. … In such cases, the notion of conflict was totally irrelevant as a guide to diagnosis. In fact, a descriptive paradigm had taken the place of an etiological paradigm. — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 674

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The core insight that a category of illness was silently redefined by the commercialized treatment available to it — ‘what could this pathology be if not what antidepressants cured?’ — is dense and paradigm-shifting.
• XREF: connects to: The new psychotropics defeated existing psychiatric vocabulary — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 398; Depression diagnosis shifted from causes to observable subtypes around 1975 — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 627; Recommended psychotherapies are enablers for antidepressants — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing…, 861 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Treatment response, not diagnosis, confirmed masked depression cases #corroborates (0.90) — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 642
• Depression subtyping proceeded by biology and classification, not etiology #corroborates (0.85) — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 660
• Depression diagnosis shifted from causes to observable subtypes around 1975 #expands (0.80) — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 627
• Recommended psychotherapies are enablers for antidepressants #expands (0.75) — Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self, 861