The nature of Winston Churchill’s ‘black dog’
sir – Boris Johnson (Comment, July 15) should not be expected to be aware of the debate within academic medicine as to whether Winston Churchill really did suffer from bouts of clinical depression.
However, in an analysis in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, entitled, “Did Sir Winston Churchill suffer from the ‘black dog’?”, published in November 2018, the authors Anthony Daniels and Allister Vale contend that Churchill may have been misdiagnosed. The infamous “black dog” was in reality an upper-middle-class reference of the time to being a bit grumpy.
However, when grappling with the current epidemic of mental illness sweeping the country, there is a kernel of deeper truth to Mr Johnson’s invocation of Churchill’s mental state.
In the face of astounding pressure, Churchill’s resolve and resilience became legendary. Churchill is proof that difficulties do not inevitably lead to mental illness, and that “fighting on” in the face of trouble has somehow become deeply unfashionable in modern Britain.
As Anthony Daniels asked when I interviewed him about his study of Churchill, whatever happened to merely being “unhappy”? Instead, we are all now depressed, and therefore need treatment and time off work.
It is welcome that Mr Johnson is trying to think more imaginatively about how to tackle mental health issues in the workplace, and is looking for examples in Britain’s history for guidance.
Dr Raj Persaud Frcpsych
London W1