Is Depression a 'Natural' Condition?

Is Depression a 'Natural' Condition? - NYTimes.com:

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In today’s Science Times, Dr. Richard A. Friedman, a psychiatrist, explores a growing trend in academic circles to view depression as a “natural” condition that, like ordinary sadness, may provide evolutionary advantages. He writes:

What is natural, the thinking goes, is best. If we are designed to suffer depression in response to life’s ills, there must be a good reason for it, and we should allow it to take its painful and natural course.

But, as Dr. Friedman goes on to say:

Unlike ordinary sadness, the natural course of depression can be devastating and lethal. And while sadness is useful, clinical depression signals a failure to adapt to stress or loss, because it impairs a person’s ability to solve the very dilemmas that triggered it.