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After class on Thursday, I was having a conversation with a fellow classmate about the role of depression in society.  She said that now it's chic to suffer from depression, that it's often glorified in our culture.  I had never looked at it in that way.  There have always been the moddier/darker characters in literature and film/television (anyone watch House?).  The image of the depressed or manic starving artist continues to flourish. (She suffers for her art [or music, or theatre]. Don't mind him, he's an artist.)  I live with two people who suffer from depression; my sister was just recently diagnosed. For me, depression is something you deal with on a daily basis.  (Take your pill with breakfast.  What kind of day are you having today?) I've never really considered it within the bigger picture of society.  It's true that depression does have a societal stigma surrounding it. Being depressed implies some sort of failure on the part of the depressed person. (Why can't you just feel better?) In reality, it's just a chemical imbalance in the brain.  Even the term imbalance has stigma attached to it--implying that something about the brain is abnormal, but if the brain changes its chemical balance from outside the range of 'normal' I think there has to be some reason.  At the same time, that could just be me trying to assign to much purpose to a highly organized bundle of neurons.  The science of depression is facinating, but the role depression plays in society is even more so.  If you have any thoughs on culture and depression or the culture of depression, let me know.