In the 1950’s depression was a relatively marginal pathology and the pharmaceutical companies were reticent to invest in the development of antidepressants. Three decades or so later, depression has been redefined as a “social epidemic” and antidepressants have become the treatment of choice. To better understand this reversal, it is necessary to place the profound transformations in social norms acted out in liberal societies in parallel with the spectacular developments in the field of biological psychiatry. By highlighting the imbrication of these two dimensions, the new regulation of “mental health” is indissoluble from the regulation of contemporary individuality.