My theory of depression’s greater prevalence in the modern era is that it’s a response to increasing choice, and/or the response to the visibility of apparent if not actual choice that is denied to the depressive.

So, say, to someone living in the year 1000 A.D, or the year 8,000 B.C., it was obvious that life had few choices and there were fairly clearly delineated paths for one to follow.

By about 1900 or so, this was less true. But 1960 or so for the majority of people in Western countries, it had become even less true than it had been in 1900.

My speculation is that if you did some testing to measure freedom of choice (or apparent choice, which might be even worse) and depression rates, they’d rise together.

I’d speculate that you’d also find lower rates of depression in low-income black communities and higher rates in affluent black communities.