I wouldn't ignore physiological causes of depression, but on the other hand why not try? Who knows, maybe it will help you? A lot depend on what actually is going on in depressed person's life. There are different depressions, different people, and different cures for depression. In ancient times stoicism was recommended as remedy for melancholia. I'm subscribing to /r/stoicism on Reddit and this topic comes up sometimes, some people report that it helped them, e.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/Stoicism/comments/1kljc5/stoicism_a...