I agree with your other points, but I'd like to point out that there's absolutely nothing wrong with supporting multiple ideas that are usually found in different ideological cages
My girlfriend found a jane street promo t-shirt in an Ithaca thrift shop - it has a nice starry sky pattern and reads something like "A more elegant language for a more civilized age". I'm enamored with the shirt! I don't know much about performant FP financial wizardry but appreciate their design dept.
Quote: "As it turned out, 8 of the 12 patients he operated on, including Deanna, felt their depressions lift while suffering minimal side effects — an incredible rate of effectiveness in patients so immovably depressed. Nor did they just vaguely recover. Their scores on the Hamilton depression scale, a standard used to measure the severity of depression, fell from the soul-deadening high 20's to the single digits — essentially normal. They've re-engaged their families, resumed jobs and friendships, started businesses, taken up hobbies old and new, replanted dying gardens. They've regained the resilience that distinguishes the healthy from the depressed."
I hasten to add that DBS is nowhere near ready for the clinic -- it's experimental and risky. But it shows what can happen when people are willing to consider biological explanations instead of psychological ones.
Because the Hamilton Depression Scale only measures symptoms and doesn't address the issue of causes (theories), no, it isn't. And the linked study will have to be repeated very carefully, with more patients, before it will be accepted as a treatment.
And finally, regardless of its value as a treatment, that study can only be a steppingstone toward actually understanding what depression is, in a biological, scientific sense.
There have been some promising studies showing rapid-onset relief for major depression following the administration of ketamine. Glutamate seems to be getting more attention these days, in terms of its potential role in mental illness.
Love it! emergent complexity, pixels, and colors! I'm working on a similar project I want to show you if you make it to a Queens Hack Night this year :)