The Language of Melancholy

Abstract

This book explores how the demise of the traditional language of melancholy lies at the root of contemporary difficulties in engaging with darker aspects of human affective experience. Melancholy – or melancholia – was a concept transmitted for millennia through a living tradition involving philosophers, physicians, poets, theologians, novelists and artists. Over the years, varied analogies, metaphors, images and ideas amassed around this notion of melancholy, and those suffering from it had powerful means to speak and write about their experiences. After the discarding of melancholy as a diagnostic entity in the 20th century for the specialized professional discourse of anxiety and depressive disorders, this rich language, unfortunately, also disappeared from the public eye. Vinkesteijn reexamines the philosophical and existential value of this language, drawing the figures and images of its tradition out of the shadows, and showcasing its beauty and expressive potential in their own words. This volume will be of interest to a broad audience of academics, students, and general readers interested in the history of ideas, philosophy, psychiatry, mental illness, and the historical and contemporary cultural discourse of depressive disorders.