Dr Ramos, I'm 68, Is It in Your Brain?

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Shernie: The idea that it can't be solved is unbearable. I would call it messianic and I say that with respect as a religious person, but human beings have a messianic desire for redemption, we're going to solve this. It's untenable when you think about it when you step outside all the cultural baggage we have around mental illness. Depression does not seem to be common in among people who are not of the modern era whether they're currently living now or in the past.

When psychiatrist Marco Ramos of Yale University prescribes antidepressants to patients in distress and they ask him how they work, Ramos admits: We don't really know. And too often, they don't work at all. Despite decades of brain research and billions of dollars spent, psychiatry has made little progress in understanding mental illness. Listen as Ramos explains to EconTalk's Russ Roberts how the myth of the biological basis for mental illness began, why it stubbornly persists, and why honesty about what we know and don't know is the best policy.