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I think it's worth considering how the brain may be responsible for influencing its own health.  We've already talked about just talking can cause changes in the brain.  Can thinking in a particular way influence the progress of mental illness?  Suppose a person had a few mild symptoms of depression.  He might not quite meet the time and severity specifications in the DSM-IV to get a diagnosis of depression, but he knows he doesn't feel right.  Could reading or hearing about depression through the media influence his symptoms?  Could he think that, because his symptoms are kind of like the ones described in the Wikipedia entry on depression, he must have it, and actually cause his symptoms to get worse just because he believes they should?  Our discussion last Monday brought up the idea of depression being "en vogue" right now.  Depression and anti-depressants are the subjects of numerous articles and news stories.  Most people probably know at least one person on anti-depressants.  It seems to me that mild depression that could be overcome without drug therapy might become more serious and long-term if the sufferer believes that his symptoms are going to continue to get worse until they match the descriptions of serious depression found in the media.  If he interprets his symptoms as only the beginning of true depression, then he could be creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.  In this way, a culture's media could actually shape the way a particular mental illness presents.