László Tringer, professor of psychiatry, presents depression as an often underestimated, yet very serious social and health problem that effects nearly 15% percent of Hungarians at some point in their lives. Formerly called melancholy, depression has apparent cultural features: literature and the arts often draw on the subject of melancholy or guilt. Tringer approaches depression from three distinct points of view: depression as a clinical problem; depression as vulnerability of the personality; and depression as a world view, as the experience of existence.