There is no doubt that depression is a serious mental illness that requires months and even years of treatment on the road to recovery. Hippocrates referred to depression as melancholia, which literally means black bile. Black bile with blood, phlegm, yellow bile were the four humors (fluids) that described the theory of basic medical physiology of that time. Depression, also known as clinical depression, has been described in literature and the arts for hundreds of years, but what we mean today when we refer to a depressive disorder? In the 19th century, depression is considered an inherited weakness of temperament. In the first half of the 20th century, Freud linked the development of depression to guilt and conflict. John Cheever, the author and the modern victim of depressive disorder, wrote of conflict and experiences with his parents and his influence the development of depression.