Si le paradis est un avant-goût d'éternité dans l'instant présent, alors l'enfer est une éternité de chagrin dans l'instant présent.

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, Aurore enlevant Céphale, 1813.

Instead of looking to an unsure future classification based on models and studies yet to be reported, there is merit in a simplified classification of the mood disorders based on the classical principles of clinically defined signs and symptoms and course of illness, as oVered by nineteenth-century psychopathologists. The psychodynamic and psychopharmacologic interruptions are false trails, misjudgments in the development of a psychiatric science that were attractive for a time. In addition to clinical criteria, biological treatments are remarkably eVective and they may be used to define diagnostic criteria. Some laboratory tests hold promise for supplementing treatment response. To redress the present false trail on which psychiatric classification is embarked, a single image of depressive mood disorders is parsimonious. Melancholia, recognized as a central theme of depressive illness throughout much of medical history, provides the standard on which to judge mood disorder.