Carl Remick wrote:
>
> But I would argue that the cause of that depressed state is
> capitalistic depredations, not idiopathic serotonin imbalances.
>
The brain learns. That is not quite so obvious (or trivial) a proposition as it may seem.
When you are stressed or distressed by external circumstances, pathways are established in the brain. Ordinarily -- BUT NOT ALWAYS -- those pathways do not become firmly established. But they can become established. You will, as it were, learned the stressed reaction just as my nervous system has learned the proper signals to produce a "produce" rather than a "DIdsos" on the keyboard. I don't think about that as I do it -- I'm a hell of a good touch typist. A year ago when I reported to my neurologist that I tended with some frequency to have what I called "shadow" headaches in the morning: they were mild and shortlived versions of the headaches that just about destroyed me three years ago -- he upped my medication because he didn't want my brain to "learn" those headaches in the same way my brain-fingers have learned the keyboard.
Capitalism, or combat fatigue, or spousal abuse, or a thousand other things may produce stress in a person, stress which results in depression. But that depression may become a habit of the brain (_not_ of the mind), and regardless of external circumstances the brain can reproduce those patterns.
Let's take a fairly crude physical analogy. In my '50s and '60s I developed abominable posture, slumped shoulders and back -- slumpted enough to reduce my height by a coupe of inches or more. My whole body/nervous system had developed a pattern. I used to hate catching a glimpse of myself in profile in a mirror. Then several years ago someone told me that a technique originally designed for singers could help that -- it's called the alexander technique. I began (at $30 for 45 min once a week) to be trained in it. It did broaden my shoulders and straighten my back -- enough so that the sleeves of my older shirts are now too short.
Perhaps 50 years (or 5 years or 5 months) from now neurologists will work out the connections among depression, bad posture, migraine, and a thousand other things. In the meantime, if the brain learns depression, meds seem (for large numbers of people) the best way to break that habit.
Carrol