[xanthopan]

> America in 1950 had orders of magnitudes less diagnosed depression than America in 2018

America in 1950 also had orders of magnitude less access to medical professionals for proper diagnosis.

And,

- The theory was still fairly nascent. "Major depressive disorder" wasn't termed until the 70s.

- Depression and anxiety were much more stigmatized back then. Men were told to "man up".

- Husbands could medicate/institutionalize their wives just because they were "hysterical".

I'd say we had a long way to go back then, and we still have a long way to go.

[curuinor]

One theory was nascent in the 70's, but the Freudian bullshit was the age of an old man by then, and the demon possession idiocy was millenia old. We still have remarkably bad effectiveness on the drugs and therapies, so there will come new theories and they will, hopefully, be better in turn.