Melancholia

Melancholia anaa melancholy (Ancient Greek: μελαγχολία, romanized: melancholía; from μέλαινα χολή, mélaina cholḗ, 'black bile')Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 be a concept dem find thru out ancient, medieval, den premodern medicine insyd Europe wey dey describe a condition wey be characterized by markedly depressed mood, bodily complaints, den sam times hallucinations den delusions. Besides a pathological condition, melancholy sanso fi refer to a mood anaa temperament den at times na dem even dey use am as a description of de human condition in general.Vinkesteijn (2025) The Language of Melancholy. Routledge.

Melancholy (anaa more precisely de 'black bile', from wich melancholy dey derive ein name) na dem regard am as one of de four temperaments wey dey match de four humours.Vinkesteijn (2025) The Language of Melancholy. Routledge. pp 13-48 Until de 18th century, na doctors den oda scholars classify melancholic conditions as such by dema perceived common causean excess of a notional fluid dem know as "black bile", wich na e commonly be linked to de spleen. Na Hippocrates den oda ancient physicians describe melancholia as a distinct disease plus mental den physical symptoms, wey dey include persistent fears den despondencies, poor appetite, abulia, sleeplessness, irritability, den agitation.Hippocrates, Aphorisms, Section 6.23Epidemics, III, 16 cases, case II Later, na dem add fixed delusions by Galen den oda physicians to de list of symptoms. Insyd de Middle Ages, na de understanding of melancholia shift to a religious perspective,Azzone P. (2013) pp. 23ff.Azzone P (2012) Sin of Sadness: Acedia vel Tristitia Between Sociocultural Conditioning and Psychological Dynamics of Negative Emotions. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 31: 50–64. plus sadness dem see as a vice den demonic possession, rada dan somatic causes, as a potential cause of de disease.

During de late 16th den early 17th centuries, na a cultural den literary cult of melancholia emerge insyd England, dem link to Neoplatonist den humanist Marsilio Ficino ein transformation of melancholia from a sign of vice into a mark of genius. Dis fashionable melancholy cam be a prominent theme insyd literature, art, den music of de era.

Between de late 18th den late 19th centuries, na melancholia be a common medical diagnosis.Berrios G E (1988) Melancholia and Depression during the 19th Century. British Journal of Psychiatry 153: 289–304 Insyd dis period, na de focus dey on de abnormal beliefs dem associate plus de disorder, rada dan depression den affective symptoms. Insyd de 19th century, na dem consider melancholia to be rooted in subjective 'passions' wey seemingly cause disordered mood (in contrast to modern biomedical explanations for mood disorders). Insyd Victorian Britain, na de notion of melancholia as a disease evolve as e cam be increasingly classifiable den diagnosable plus a set list of symptoms wey contribute to a biomedical model for de understanding mental disease.Berrios G E (1988) Melancholia and Depression during the 19th Century. British Journal of Psychiatry 153: 289–304 However, insyd de 20th century, na de focus san shift, wey dem cam use de term essentially as a synonym give depression. Indeed, na modern concepts of depression as a mood disorder eventually arise from dis historical context. Today, dem still dey use de term "melancholia" den "melancholic" insyd medical diagnostic classification, such as insyd ICD-11 den DSM-5, to specify certain features wey fi be present insyd major depression.World Health Organization, "6A80.3 Current depressive episode with melancholia", International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 11th rev. (September 2020). De 20th den 21st century accounts of depression be de successors of melancholia insyd psychiatry, buh melancholia (anaa melancholy) sanso get a much wider use before de 19th century. Na e be a subject plus wich no be psychiatrists den doctors per, buh philosophers, poets, artists, den writers all sanso engaged. Na dis lead to a relatively ambiguous field of meaning, insyd wich na melancholy be accommodated within an understanding of human nature on de basis of humoral theory.Vinkesteijn (2025) The Language of Melancholy. Routledge. pp 158-198

Related terms dem use insyd historical medicine dey include lugubriousness (from Latin lugere, 'to mourn'), moroseness (from Latin morosus, 'self-will anaa fastidious habit'), wistfulness (from a blend of wishful den de obsolete English wistly, wey dey mean 'intently'), den saturnineness (from Latin Saturninus, 'of de planet Saturn').

 References 

External links

 Grunwald Center website: Durer's Melencolia and clinical depression, iconography and printmaking techniques
 "Dürer's Melancholia": sonnet by Edward Dowden
 Melancholy and abstraction, on the Berlin exhibition "Melancholy: Genius and Madness in Art"
 Diderot's historic writing on Melancholy
 "The Four Humours" on "In Our Time"
 "An Anatomy of Melancholy" on "In Our Time"
 At the Roots of Melancholy


Category:Obsolete terms for mental disorders
Category:Humorism
Category:Mood disorders
Category:Emotions