Black dogs

Winston Churchill is the cultural figure famed for using the term 'black dog' to describe his affliction of clinical depression. Whether or not Churchill invented this phrase or not is a matter of dispute - it would seem unlikely, given that the metaphorical image of a black dog within common parlance, literature and folklore has a long and tangled back-history. Indeed, cultivation of the phrase has also been attributed to Samuel Jonson, Hester Thrale and John Boswell, which indicates that conceptions of depression found description in the visual symbol of the black dog long before Churchill spoke about his illness. Nonetheless, in 1911 Churchill wrote to his wife, Clementine, having visited a doctor who he felt had 'cured' him:

"I think this man might be useful to me - if my black dog returns. He seems quite away from me now - it is such a relief. All the colours come back into the picture."

The notion of colour in relation to depression is curious, since it figures frequently as a way of measuring or describing ones internal state. That the ascription of mood to colour is culturally learned does not prevent it from 'feeling' like a natural or instinctive way of expressing the tone of personal emotion. Grey, black and blue are ready shorthand descriptors for feelings of apathy, sadness, bleakness and hopeless sensations, all of which are common symptoms of depression.