Q&A: “Black Dog” — Churchill and Depression

10 June 2024 Comments 0 Comments

Q: Depression

What is the truth about Churchill suffering from depression, which he referred to as his Black Dog”? —A.L. Kansas

A: More smoke than fire

(Updated from 2009.) Churchill himself makes a few early mentions of depression, calling it his “Black Dog.” But the expression is much older than he was. It was frequently used by Victorian nannies, like Churchill’s Mrs. Everest, when their charges were in dark moods. One early reference to depression, aka Black Dog, is in Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

When it comes to Churchill’s personal characteristics it is well to rely on family members who knew him best. There are many illuminating references. The best one was by his daughter Lady Soames, who I think had it right:

A lot has been made of depression in his character by psychiatrists who were never in the same room with him. He himself talks of his Black Dog, and he did have times of great depression. But in my opinion, marriage to my mother, and later his discovery of painting, which was a lifelong solace, largely kennelled the Black Dog.

Of course, if you have a Black Dog, it lurks somewhere in your nature and you never quite banish it. But I never saw him disarmed by depression. I’m not talking about the depression of his much later years, because surely that is a sad feature of old age which afflicts a great many people who have led a very active life.

Four Faces and the Man

Lady Soames was referring in particular to psychiatrist Anthony Storr’s chapter in Churchill: Four Faces and the Man, in its time a well-circulated analysis. She believed Storr made far too much of it. She told me once that anybody who was not depressed over some of the events her father went through would not be normal.

From Mary Soames, Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills (1998), page 53: WSC to Clementine Churchill, Home Office, 11 July 1911….

Alice [Guest] interested me a great deal in her talk about her doctor in Germany, who completely cured her depression. I think this man might be useful to me—if my Black Dog returns. He seems quite away from me now. It is such a relief. All the colours came back into the picture. Brightest of all your dear face—my Darling.