One of my favorite movies is "The Last Emperor", a biopic of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China who lost the throne in 1911 at age six, lived in the Forbidden City until he had to flee in 1924, and then was recuperated by the japanese just in time for WW2 and serve as puppet emperor of Manchukuo.

At the beginning of the movie, the dying empress is Tseu'hi. It's one of those historical women like Catherine de Medici and Livia that show that even though women can play the political game we don't make it a utopia just because ovaries.

One thing that struck me is that the emperor is powerless in his own domain. It's a cohort of empresses (that are always seen, but never named) and eunuchs (supposedly powerless men!) that decide every little thing from what the emperor eats, to sending away his mother figure, to who he sleeps with.

They pretend to serve the emperor, but they are using him as little more than an excuse for their own rank!

Depression works a lot like that. When you are depressed, you don't know it. You think other people are either stupid or out to hurt you. They become "foreign devils" to the Forbidden City of your life and those toxic thoughts are the eunuchs and empresses, hijacking behind the scenes the control that you -the real you- should have over your life.