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I have read some material on how depression was viewed in history. There is at least some work in Christian theology on sloth/acedia which is not only laziness,

by sn41 5y ago

I have read some material on how depression was viewed in history. There is at least some work in Christian theology on sloth/acedia which is not only laziness, but also has a lot of signs of what is called clinical depression [1]. While searching this, a very strange coincidence I have found is that the "demon" for sloth is the same as the demon who inspires people to make discoveries [2]. I speculate that the link between depression and creativity was recognized in antiquity. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acedia [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belphegor

triggercut 5y ago
Not sure on her sources but you may find the following interesting https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_creative_genius/transcript?language=en https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_your_elusive_cre... 6:02 - "And that search has led me to ancient Greece and ancient Rome. So stay with me, because it does circle around and back. But, ancient Greece and ancient Rome -- people did not happen to believe that creativity came from human beings back then, OK? People believed that creativity was this divine attendant spirit that came to human beings from some distant and unknowable source, for distant and unknowable reasons. The Greeks famously called these divine attendant spirits of creativity "daemons." Socrates, famously, believed that he had a daemon who spoke wisdom to him from afar."