Classified in mood disorders as a type of depression according to the “Criteria of Mental Disorders”, melancholia is one of the first known diseases. Hippocrates was the first to describe it systematically. The reason of the disease was explained by humoral theory and it was named “melancholia” which literally means black bile. Similarly, the disease was known in Islamic and Ottoman medicine as “mal-i hülya” or “kara sevda”. At the end of the 19th century, E. Kraepelin made a detailed classification of mental disorders according to symptoms, prognosis and termination of the disease. This classification which places melancholia in the “manic-depressive diseases” group formed the foundation of diagnostic and statistical criteria of mental disorders since 1952. In recent years, some views were developed suggesting that melancholia is a different disease from non-melancholic depression and several studies were conducted on this purpose. Raşit Tahsin is known as the founder of the psychiatric branch in our country. He was sent to Germany to study psychiatry and neurology and on his return he started to lecture in the Military Faculty of Medicine. Raşit Tahsin’s Book “Seririyat-ı Akliye Dersleri” was published in 1336 (1920). Mental diseases were classified and described in details in the first part of the book. The second part of the book is devoted to cases presented to the medical students. The form of application to the hospital, history, examination findings, differentiating diagnosis of each patient and the prognosis and the treatment of each disease were discussed. The part of the book related to melancholy is examined in this study. Especially the findings obtained from the discussion of case studies provide information about psychiatric treatments during the period. Also the findings are evaluated in terms of today’s different opinions about the classification of melancholia and depression.

Classified in mood disorders as a type of depression according to the “Criteria of Mental Disorders”, melancholia is one of the first known diseases. Hippocrates was the first to describe it systematically. The reason of the disease was explained by humoral theory and it was named “melancholia” which literally means black bile.Similarly, the disease was known in Islamic and Ottoman medicine as “mal-i hülya” or “kara sevda”. At the end of the 19th century, E. Kraepelin made a detailed classification of mental disorders according to symptoms, prognosis and termination of the disease. This classification which places melancholia in the “manic-depressive diseases” group formed the foundation of diagnostic and statistical criteria of mental disorders since 1952. In recent years, some views were developed suggesting that melancholia is a different disease from non-melancholic depression and several studies were conducted on this purpose. Raşit Tahsin is known as the founder of the psychiatric branch in our country. He was sent to Germany to study psychiatry and neurology and on his return he started to lecture in the Military Faculty of Medicine. Raşit Tahsin’s Book “Seririyat-ı Akliye Dersleri” was published in 1336 (1920). Mental diseases were classified and described in details in the first part of the book. The second part of the book is devoted to cases presented to the medical students. The form of application to the hospital, history, examination findings, differentiating diagnosis of each patient and the prognosis and the treatment of each disease were discussed. The part of the book related to melancholy is examined in this study. Especially the findings obtained from the discussion of case studies provide information about psychiatric treatments during the period. Also the findings are evaluated in terms of today’s different opinions about the classification of melancholia and depression