Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder David Healy

Abstract

Disease has always been a biological as well as a social and linguistic entity Every disease has a unique past and claims its own history Depression and mania have a lengthy pedigree- Their defining aspects are as old as medicine itself but our contemporary notion of BD is in some ways conceptually novel The clinical phenomena of BD are of course real but each era has perceived and managed them in a historically specific way. In that sense bipolar disorder is not only a biological but also a social entity colored by the current reductionistic notions about sickness, furthermore created in part by the laboratory accomplishments but also shaped by mass media and the business interests of the pharmaceutical industry.”