Editing Melancholia

{{Short description|Historical view of extreme depression}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:A man whose face exemplifies the melancholy temperament. Dra Wellcome V0009108ER.jpg|thumb| [[Physiognomy]] of the melancholic temperament (drawing by [[Thomas Holloway (painter)|Thomas Holloway]], {{circa}}1789, made  for [[Johann Kaspar Lavater]]'s ''Essays on Physiognomy'')]]

'''Melancholia''' or '''melancholy''' (from {{langx|el| µέλαινα χολή}} ''{{Transliteration|el|melaina chole}}'',<ref name="Burton">Burton, Bk. I, p. 147</ref> meaning '''black bile''')<ref name="Bell2014">{{cite book |vauthors=Bell M |title=Melancholia: The Western Malady |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=United Kingdom |isbn=978-1-107-06996-1 |page=38 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zblUBAAAQBAJ |language=en |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220828114252/https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Melancholia/zblUBAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> is a concept found throughout [[History of medicine#Ancient Greek medicine|ancient]], [[medieval medicine of Western Europe|medieval]], and [[Learned medicine|premodern]] medicine in Europe that describes a condition characterized by markedly [[Depression (mood)|depressed mood]], bodily complaints, and sometimes [[hallucination]]s and [[delusion]]s.

Melancholy was regarded as one of the [[four temperaments]] matching the [[four humours]].<ref name=":10">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thetransformedsoul.com/additional-studies/miscellaneous-studies/the-four-human-temperaments|title=The Four Human Temperaments|website=www.thetransformedsoul.com|access-date=2022-08-28|archive-date=2022-07-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220707113424/http://www.thetransformedsoul.com/additional-studies/miscellaneous-studies/the-four-human-temperaments|url-status=live}}</ref> Until the 18th century, doctors and other scholars classified melancholic conditions as such by their perceived common cause{{snd}}an excess of a notional fluid known as "black bile", which was commonly [[Spleen#Society and culture|linked to the spleen]]. [[Hippocrates]] and other ancient physicians described melancholia as a distinct disease with mental and physical symptoms, including persistent fears and despondencies, poor appetite, [[abulia]], sleeplessness, irritability, and agitation.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /> Later, fixed [[delusion]]s were added by [[Galen]] and other physicians to the list of symptoms.<ref name="Coffee" /><ref name="auto" /> In the [[Middle Ages]], the understanding of melancholia shifted to a religious perspective,<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> with sadness seen as a vice and [[demonic possession]], rather than somatic causes, as a potential cause of the disease.<ref name=":6" />

During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, a cultural and literary cult of melancholia emerged in England, linked to [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] and [[Humanism|humanist]] [[Marsilio Ficino]]'s transformation of melancholia from a sign of vice into a mark of genius. This fashionable melancholy became a prominent theme in literature, art, and music of the era.{{Citation needed|reason=Can you please cite one or two examples, or a relevant review about melancholic themes in 16th-17th century arts? This paragraph is great but not referenced at all. |date=January 2025}}

Between the late 18th and late 19th centuries, ''melancholia'' was a common medical diagnosis.<ref>Berrios G E (1988) Melancholia and Depression during the 19th Century. ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' 153: 289–304</ref> In this period, the focus was on the abnormal beliefs associated with the disorder, rather than depression and affective symptoms.<ref name="auto" /> In the 19th century, melancholia was considered to be rooted in subjective 'passions' that seemingly caused disordered mood (in contrast to modern biomedical explanations for mood disorders). In Victorian Britain, the notion of melancholia as a disease evolved as it became increasingly classifiable and diagnosable with a set list of symptoms that contributed to a biomedical model for the understanding mental disease.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jansson |first=Asa |title=From Melancholia to Depression: Disordered Mood in 19th Century Psychiatry |publisher=Springer Nature Switzerland AG |year=2021 |isbn=978-3-030-54801-8}}</ref> However, in the 20th century, the focus again shifted, and the term became used essentially as a synonym for depression.<ref name="auto" /> Indeed, modern concepts of depression as a [[mood disorder]] eventually arose from this historical context.<ref name="Kendler2020">{{cite journal |vauthors=Kendler KS |title=The Origin of Our Modern Concept of Depression-The History of Melancholia from 1780–1880: A Review |journal=JAMA Psychiatry |volume=77 |issue=8 |pages=863–868 |date=August 2020 |pmid=31995137 |doi=10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.4709 |s2cid=210949394 |url=http://psychiatry.pote.hu/tavoktatas/Kendler_History_JAMA.pdf |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-08-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220812223630/http://psychiatry.pote.hu/tavoktatas/Kendler_History_JAMA.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Today, the term "melancholia" and "melancholic" are still used in medical diagnostic classification, such as in [[ICD-11]] and [[DSM-5]], to specify certain features that may be present in major depression.<ref name=":7" /><ref name="DSM-5" />

Related terms used in historical medicine include '''lugubriousness''' (from [[Latin Language|Latin]] ''[[wikt:lugeo|lugere]]'': "to mourn"),<ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Lugubrious |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lugubrious |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]] |language=en}}</ref><ref name=eerdmans>{{Cite book| publisher = [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]]| isbn = 978-0-8028-6927-2| editor1 = Porter, Stanley C.| editor2 = Malcolm, Matthew R.| title = Horizons in Hermeneutics: A Festschrift in Honor of Anthony C. Thiselton| date = 2013-04-25|page=162|quote=Melancholia [is] also translated as "lugubriousness," "moroseness," or "wistfulness".}}</ref> '''moroseness''' (from Latin ''[[wikt:morosus|morosus]]'': "self-will or fastidious habit"),<ref name="eerdmans" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Moroseness |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moroseness |access-date=2022-12-07 |website=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]] |language=en}}</ref> '''wistfulness''' (from a blend of "wishful" and the obsolete English ''[[wikt:wistly|wistly]]'', meaning "intently"),<ref name="eerdmans" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Wistfulness |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/wistfulness |access-date=December 7, 2022 |website=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]]}}</ref> and '''saturnineness''' (from Latin ''[[wikt:Saturninus|Saturninus]]'': "of the [[Saturn (astrology)|planet Saturn]]).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Definition of Saturnine |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/saturnine |access-date=December 7, 2022 |website=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]]}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book| publisher = [[Brill Publishers|Brill]]| isbn = 978-90-04-29639-8| title = Voices from Exile: Essays in Memory of Hamish Ritchie| date = 2015|page=213|editor1=Wallace, Ian|quote=[This is] what humour-based physiology of the renaissance and baroque periods described as saturnine melancholia.}}</ref>

==Early history==
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Melencolia I - Google Art Project ( AGDdr3EHmNGyA).jpg|thumb|''[[Melencolia I]]'' by [[Albrecht Dürer]], 1514]]
[[File:Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1626, 2nd edition.jpg|thumb|[[Book frontispiece|Frontispiece]] for the 1628 3rd edition of ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]'']]

The name "melancholia" comes from the old medical belief of the four [[humourism|humours]]: disease or ailment being caused by an imbalance in one or more of the four basic bodily liquids, or humours. Personality types were similarly determined by the dominant humor in a particular person. According to [[Hippocrates]] and subsequent tradition, melancholia was caused by an excess of black bile,<ref>Hippocrates, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0251%3Atext%3DAer.%3Asection%3D10 ''De aere aquis et locis'', 10.103] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601220934/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0251%3Atext%3DAer.%3Asection%3D10 |date=2022-06-01 }}, on Perseus Digital Library</ref> hence the name, which means "black bile", from [[Ancient Greek]] μέλας ({{Transliteration|grc|melas}}), "dark, black",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dme%2Flas μέλας] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605183904/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dme%2Flas |date=2011-06-05 }},
Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> and χολή ({{Transliteration|grc|kholé}}), "bile";<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dxolh%2F χολή] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220708042944/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dxolh%2F |date=2022-07-08 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek–English Lexicon'', on Perseus Digital Library</ref> a person whose constitution tended to have a preponderance of black bile had a ''melancholic'' disposition. In the complex elaboration of humorist theory, it was associated with the earth from the [[Four Elements]], the season of autumn, the [[spleen]] as the originating organ and cold and dry as related qualities. In [[astrology]] it showed the influence of [[Saturn]], hence the related adjective ''saturnine''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

Melancholia was described as a distinct [[History of depression|disease]] with particular mental and physical symptoms in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Hippocrates, in his ''[[s:Aphorisms|Aphorisms]]'', characterized all "fears and despondencies, if they last a long time" as being symptomatic of melancholia.<ref name=":2">Hippocrates, ''Aphorisms'', Section 6.23</ref> Other symptoms mentioned by Hippocrates include: poor appetite, [[abulia]], sleeplessness, irritability, agitation.<ref name=":3">Epidemics, III, 16 cases, case II</ref> The Hippocratic clinical description of melancholia shows significant overlaps with contemporary nosography of depressive syndromes (6 symptoms out of the 9 included in DSM <ref>American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: Fifth Edition. APA, Washington DC., pp. 160–161.</ref> diagnostic criteria for a Major Depressive).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Azzone |first=Paolo |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/816563937 |title=Depression as a psychoanalytic problem |date=2013 |publisher=University Press of America |isbn=978-0-7618-6041-9 |location=Lanham, Md |oclc=816563937}}</ref>

In [[Mental illness in ancient Rome|ancient Rome]], [[Galen]] added "fixed delusions" to the set of symptoms listed by Hippocrates. Galen also believed that melancholia caused cancer.<ref name=Coffee>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=oI6LtxfEKkwC&q=melancholia+%22gall+bladder%22&pg=PA322|title= Coffee: Physiology|first1= R. J.|last1= Clarke|first2= R.|last2= Macrae|year= 1988|publisher= Springer Science & Business Media|via= Google Books|isbn= 978-1-85166-186-2|access-date= 2022-08-28|archive-date= 2022-07-03|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220703235357/https://books.google.com/books?id=oI6LtxfEKkwC&q=melancholia+%22gall+bladder%22&pg=PA322|url-status= live}}</ref> [[Aretaeus of Cappadocia]], in turn, believed that melancholia involved both a state of anguish, and a delusion.<ref name=auto/> In the 10th century [[Persian people|Persian]] physician [[Abu Bakr Rabee Ibn Ahmad Al-Akhawyni Bokhari|Al-Akhawayni Bokhari]] described melancholia as a [[Chronic condition|chronic]] illness caused by the impact of black bile on the brain.<ref name=My4>{{cite journal|last1=Delfaridi|first1=Behnam|title=Melancholia in Medieval Persian Literature: The View of Hidayat of Al-Akhawayni.|journal=World Journal of Psychiatry|date=2014|pages=37–41|doi=10.5498/wjp.v4.i2.37|volume=4|issue=2|pmc=4087154|pmid=25019055 |doi-access=free }}</ref> He described melancholia's initial clinical manifestations as "suffering from an unexplained fear, inability to answer questions or providing false answers, self-laughing and self-crying and speaking meaninglessly, yet with no fever."<ref name="Jala">{{cite book |last=Matini |first=Jalal|title= Hedayat al-Motaallemin fi Tebb |publisher= University Press, Mashhad |year= 1965 }}</ref>

In Middle-Ages Europe, the humoral, somatic paradigm for understanding sustained sadness lost primacy in front of the prevailing religious perspective.<ref name=":4">Azzone P. (2013) pp. 23ff.</ref><ref name=":5">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.</ref> Sadness came to be a vice (λύπη in the Greek vice list by Evagrius Ponticus,<ref>Guillamont A., Guillamont C. (Eds.) (1971) Évagre le Pontique. Traité pratique ou le moine, 2 VV.. Sources Chrétiennes 170–171, Les Éditions du Cerf, Paris</ref> tristitia vel acidia in the 7 vice list by [[Pope Gregory I]]).<ref>Gregorius Magnus. Moralia in Iob. In J.-P. Migne (Ed.) Patrologiae Latinae cursus completus (Vol. 75, col. 509D – Vol. 76, col. 782AG)</ref> When a patient could not be cured of the disease it was thought that the melancholia was a result of [[demonic possession]].<ref name=":6">{{cite web|url=http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/pom/storyReader$7.html|title=18th-Century Theories of Melancholy & Hypochondria|website=loki.stockton.edu|access-date=2022-08-28|archive-date=2021-01-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125034701/http://loki.stockton.edu/~kinsellt/projects/pom/storyReader$7.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Farmer, Hugh. [https://archive.org/stream/essayondemonia00farm#page/56/mode/2up An essay on demoniacs of the New Testament] 56 (1818)</ref>

In his study of French and Burgundian courtly culture, [[Johan Huizinga]]<ref>Huizinga, "Pessimism and the ideal of the sublime life", ''[[The Autumn of the Middle Ages|The Waning of the Middle Ages]]'', 1924:22ff.</ref> noted that "at the close of the Middle Ages, a sombre melancholy weighs on people's souls." In chronicles, poems, sermons, even in legal documents, an immense sadness, a note of despair and a fashionable sense of suffering and deliquescence at the approaching end of times, suffuses court poets and chroniclers alike: Huizinga quotes instances in the ballads of [[Eustache Deschamps]], "monotonous and gloomy variations of the same dismal theme", and in [[Georges Chastellain]]'s prologue to his Burgundian chronicle,<ref>"I, man of sadness, born in an eclipse of darkness, and thick fogs of lamentation".</ref> and in the late 15th-century poetry of [[Jean Meschinot]]. Ideas of reflection and the workings of imagination are blended in the term ''merencolie'', embodying for contemporaries "a tendency", observes Huizinga, "to identify all serious occupation of the mind with sadness".<ref>Huizinga 1924:25.</ref>

Painters were considered by [[Vasari]] and other writers to be especially prone to melancholy by the nature of their work, sometimes with good effects for their art in increased sensitivity and use of fantasy. Among those of his contemporaries so characterised by Vasari were [[Pontormo]] and [[Parmigianino]], but he does not use the term of [[Michelangelo]], who used it, perhaps not very seriously, of himself.<ref>Britton, Piers, ''"Mio malinchonico, o vero... mio pazzo": Michelangelo, Vasari, and the Problem of Artists' Melancholy in Sixteenth-Century Italy'', ''The Sixteenth Century Journal'', Vol. 34, No. 3 (Fall, 2003), pp. 653–675, {{doi|10.2307/20061528}}, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201114100118/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20061528 |date=2020-11-14 }}</ref> A famous [[allegory|allegorical]] [[engraving]] by [[Albrecht Dürer]] is entitled ''[[Melencolia I]]''. This engraving has been interpreted as portraying melancholia as the state of waiting for inspiration to strike, and not necessarily as a depressive affliction. Amongst other allegorical symbols, the picture includes a [[magic square]] and a truncated [[rhombohedron]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DuerersSolid.html|title=Dürer's Solid|first=Eric W.|last=Weisstein|website=mathworld.wolfram.com|access-date=2022-08-28|archive-date=2022-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220130210426/https://mathworld.wolfram.com/DuerersSolid.html|url-status=live}}</ref> The image in turn inspired a passage in ''[[The City of Dreadful Night]]'' by [[James Thomson (B.V.)]], and, a few years later, a sonnet by [[Edward Dowden]].

The most extended treatment of melancholia comes from [[Robert Burton (scholar)|Robert Burton]], whose ''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]'' (1621) treats the subject from both a literary and a medical [[perspective (cognitive)|perspective]]. His concept of melancholia includes all mental illness, which he divides into different types. Burton wrote in the 17th century that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness.<ref>Cf. ''The Anatomy of Melancholy'', subsection 3, on and after line 3480, "Music a Remedy":</ref>
{{blockquote|But to leave all declamatory speeches in praise of divine music, I will confine myself to my proper subject: besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, in Philostratus, when Apollonius was inquisitive to know what he could do with his pipe, told him, "That he would make a melancholy man merry, and him that was merry much merrier than before, a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout." Ismenias the Theban, Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by music alone: as now they do those, saith Bodine, that are troubled with St. Vitus's Bedlam dance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-8.txt|title=Gutenberg.org|access-date=2022-08-28|archive-date=2020-08-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809183107/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10800/10800-8.txt|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://www.med.mun.ca/munmed/84/crellin.htm "Humanities are the Hormones: A Tarantella Comes to Newfoundland. What should we do about it?"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215015105/http://www.med.mun.ca/munmed/84/crellin.htm |date=February 15, 2015 }} by Dr. John Crellin, ''Munmed'', newsletter of the Faculty of Medicine, [[Memorial University of Newfoundland]], 1996.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Aung, Steven K.H. |author2=Lee, Mathew H.M. |title=Music, Sounds, Medicine, and Meditation: An Integrative Approach to the Healing Arts |journal=Alternative & Complementary Therapies |year=2004 |volume=10 |issue=5 |pages=266–270 |doi=10.1089/act.2004.10.266}}</ref>}}

In the [[Encyclopédie]] of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]] and [[Jean le Rond d'Alembert|d'Alembert]], the causes of melancholia are stated to be similar to those that cause [[Mania]]: "grief, pains of the spirit, passions, as well as all the love and sexual appetites that go unsatisfied."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Denis Diderot |title= Melancholia |url= http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/did2222.0000.808/--melancholia?rgn=main;view=fulltext |date= 2015 |journal= The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project |access-date= 1 April 2015 |archive-date= 2 April 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150402215527/http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/did2222.0000.808/--melancholia?rgn=main;view=fulltext |url-status= live }}</ref>

==English cultural movement==
[[File:Ch. Boirau, "The Spleen" ("Melancholy").jpg|thumb|right|Ch. Boirau, ''The Spleen'' (''Melancholy''). Postcard, {{Circa|1915}}.]]
[[File:John Donne BBC News.jpg|thumb|The young [[John Donne]], the very picture of fashionable melancholy in the Jacobean era]]
[[File:Melancholy-Castiglione.jpg|thumb|''Melancholy'', [[etching]] by [[Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione]], 1640s]]
During the later 16th and early 17th centuries, a curious cultural and literary cult of melancholia arose in England. In an influential<ref name="Goldring">{{Cite journal |last=Goldring |first=Elizabeth |date=2005 |title='So lively a portraiture of his miseries': Melancholy, mourning and the Elizabethan malady |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41614620 |journal=The British Art Journal |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=12–22 |jstor=41614620 |issn=1467-2006 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="Ribeiro1">{{cite book | last = Ribeiro | first = Aileen | title = Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven CN; London | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-300-10999-3|page=52}}</ref> 1964 essay in [[Apollo (magazine)|Apollo]], art historian [[Roy Strong]] traced the origins of this fashionable melancholy to the thought of the popular [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] and [[humanism|humanist]] [[Marsilio Ficino]] (1433–1499), who replaced the medieval notion of melancholia with something new: {{blockquote|Ficino transformed what had hitherto been regarded as the most calamitous of all the humours into the mark of genius. Small wonder that eventually the attitudes of melancholy soon became an indispensable adjunct to all those with artistic or intellectual pretentions.<ref name="Malady">{{cite journal|last=Strong|first=Roy|year=1964|title=The Elizabethan Malady: Melancholy in Elizabeth and Jacobean Portraiture|journal=Apollo|volume=LXXIX}}, reprinted in {{cite book | last = Strong | first = Roy | title = The English Icon: Elizabethan and Jacobean Portraiture | publisher = Routledge & Kegan Paul | location = London | year = 1969}}</ref>}}

''[[The Anatomy of Melancholy]]'' (''The Anatomy of Melancholy, What it is: With all the Kinds, Causes, Symptomes, Prognostickes, and Several Cures of it... Philosophically, Medicinally, Historically, Opened and Cut Up'') by Burton, was first published in 1621 and remains a defining literary monument to the fashion. Another major English author who made extensive expression upon being of an melancholic disposition is Sir [[Thomas Browne]] in his ''[[Religio Medici]]'' (1643).

''[[Night-Thoughts]]'' (''The Complaint: or, Night-Thoughts on Life, Death, &<!-- do not change to "and" --> Immortality''), a long poem in blank verse by [[Edward Young]] was published in nine parts (or "nights") between 1742 and 1745, and hugely popular in several languages. It had a considerable influence on early [[Romanticism|Romantics]] in England, France and Germany. [[William Blake]] was commissioned to illustrate a later edition.

In the visual arts, this fashionable intellectual melancholy occurs frequently in portraiture of the era, with sitters posed in the form of "the lover, with his crossed arms and floppy hat over his eyes, and the scholar, sitting with his head resting on his hand"<ref name="Malady" />{{snd}}descriptions drawn from the frontispiece to the 1638 edition of Burton's ''Anatomy'', which shows just such by-then stock characters. These portraits were often set out of doors where Nature provides "the most suitable background for spiritual contemplation"<ref name="Ribeiro2">{{cite book | last = Ribeiro | first = Aileen | title = Fashion and Fiction: Dress in Art and Literature in Stuart England | publisher = Yale University Press | location = New Haven, CN; London | year = 2005 | isbn = 978-0-300-10999-3|page=54 }}</ref> or in a gloomy interior.

In music, the post-Elizabethan cult of melancholia is associated with [[John Dowland]], whose motto was ''Semper Dowland, semper dolens'' ("Always Dowland, always mourning"). The melancholy man, known to contemporaries as a "malcontent", is epitomized by Shakespeare's [[Hamlet|Prince Hamlet]], the "Melancholy Dane".

A similar phenomenon, though not under the same name, occurred during the German ''[[Sturm und Drang]]'' movement, with such works as ''[[The Sorrows of Young Werther]]'' by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] or in [[Romanticism]] with works such as ''[[Ode on Melancholy]]'' by [[John Keats]] or in [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolism]] with works such as ''[[Isle of the Dead (painting)|Isle of the Dead]]'' by [[Arnold Böcklin]]. In the 20th century, much of the counterculture of [[modernism]] was fueled by comparable [[Social alienation|alienation]] and a sense of purposelessness called "[[anomie]]"; earlier artistic preoccupation with death has gone under the rubric of [[memento mori]]. The medieval condition of [[acedia]] (''acedie'' in English) and the Romantic [[Weltschmerz]] were similar concepts, most likely to affect the intellectual.<ref>[[Núria Perpinyà|Perpinyà, Núria]] (2014). [http://www.logos-verlag.de/cgi-bin/buch/isbn/3794 ''Ruins, Nostalgia and Ugliness. Five Romantic Perceptions of Middle Ages and a Spoon of Game of Thrones and Avant-Garde Oddity''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313091643/http://logos-verlag.de/cgi-bin/buch/isbn/3794 |date=2016-03-13 }}. Berlin: Logos Verlag</ref>

==Modern connotations==
Until the 18th century, writings on melancholia were mainly concerned with beliefs that were considered abnormal, rather than affective symptoms.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal |last1=Telles-Correia |first1=Diogo |last2=Marques |first2=João Gama |title=Melancholia Before the Twentieth Century: Fear and Sorrow or Partial Insanity? |journal=Frontiers in Psychology |doi=10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00081 |date=3 February 2015|volume=6 |page=81 |pmid=25691879 |pmc=4314947 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Melancholia was a category that "the well-to-do, the sedentary, and the studious were even more liable to be placed in the eighteenth century than they had been in preceding centuries."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wear |first1=A |title=The Oxford Companion to the Body |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/anatomy-and-physiology/anatomy-and-physiology/humours |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2021-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211015123057/https://www.encyclopedia.com/medicine/anatomy-and-physiology/anatomy-and-physiology/humours |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Ordronaux |first1=John |title=Regimen sanitatis salernitanum. Code of health of the school of Salernum |date=1871 |publisher=Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott & co. |url=https://archive.org/details/codehealthschoo00salegoog/page/n126/mode/2up}}</ref>

In the 20th century, "melancholia" lost its attachment to abnormal beliefs, and in common usage became entirely a synonym for depression.<ref name="auto"/> Sigmund Freud published a paper on [[Mourning and Melancholia]] in 1918.

In 1907, the German psychiatrist [[Emil Kraepelin]] influentially proposed the existence of a condition he called '[[involutional melancholia]]', which he thought could help explain the more frequent occurrence of depression among elderly people.<ref name=Kendler2020a>{{cite journal |vauthors=Kendler KS, Engstrom EJ |title=Dreyfus and the shift of melancholia in Kraepelin's textbooks from an involutional to a manic-depressive illness |journal=Journal of Affective Disorders |volume=270 |issue= |pages=42–50 |date=2020 |pmid=32275219 |doi=10.1016/j.jad.2020.03.094 |s2cid=215726731 |url=}}</ref> He surmised that in the elderly "the processes of involution in the body are suited to engender mournful or anxious moodiness", though by 1913 he had returned to his earlier view (first expounded in 1899) that age-related depression could be understood in terms of [[History of bipolar disorder|manic-depressive illness]].<ref name=Kendler2020a/>

In 1996, Gordon Parker and Dusan Hadzi-Pavlovic described "melancholia" as a specific disorder of movement and mood.<ref>{{cite book |title=Melancholia: A Disorder of Movement and Mood: A Phenomenological and Neurobiological Review |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Sydney |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511759024 |isbn=978-0-521-47275-3 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/melancholia-a-disorder-of-movement-and-mood/06FCFEFCC319F56F9C2DFD70154652F7 |editor1-last=Parker |editor1-first=Gordon |editor2-first=Dusan |editor2-last=Hadzi-Pavlovic |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-01-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120212940/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/melancholia-a-disorder-of-movement-and-mood/06FCFEFCC319F56F9C2DFD70154652F7 |url-status=live }}</ref> They attached the term to the concept of "endogenous depression" (claimed to be caused by internal forces rather than environmental influences).<ref>{{cite web |last1=Parker |first1=Gordon |title=Back to Black: Why Melancholia Must Be Understood as Distinct from Depression |url=https://theconversation.com/back-to-black-why-melancholia-must-be-understood-as-distinct-from-depression-38025 |website=The Conversation |date=6 September 2015 |language=en |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-03-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220330205933/https://theconversation.com/back-to-black-why-melancholia-must-be-understood-as-distinct-from-depression-38025 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2006, Michael Alan Taylor and Max Fink also defined melancholia as a systemic disorder that could be identified by depressive mood rating scales, verified by the presence of abnormal [[cortisol]] metabolism.<ref name=Taylor2006/> They considered it to be characterized by depressed mood, abnormal motor functions, and abnormal vegetative signs, and they described several forms, including [[retarded depression]], [[psychotic depression]] and [[postpartum depression]].<ref name=Taylor2006>{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Michael Alan |last2=Fink |first2=Max |title=Melancholia: The Diagnosis, Pathophysiology and Treatment of Depressive Illness |date=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-521-84151-1 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/melancholia/E6001F6461E25F6DB0598AD736F38C1E |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503102008/https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/melancholia/E6001F6461E25F6DB0598AD736F38C1E |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Melancholic depression===
{{Infobox medical condition
| name            = Melancholic depression
| pronounce       =
| synonyms        =
| image           =File:Accademia - La Meditazione by Domenico Fetti 1618.jpg
| caption         = Meditation by Domenico Fetti 1618
| field           = [[Psychiatry]]
| symptoms        = Low mood, low self-esteem, [[fatigue]], [[insomnia]], [[anorexia (symptom)|anorexia]], [[anhedonia]], lack of mood reactivity
| complications   =[[Self harm]], [[suicide]]
| onset           =Early adulthood
| duration        =
| causes          =[[genetics|Genetic]], environmental, and psychological factors
| risks           = [[Family history (medicine)|Family history]], [[psychological trauma|trauma]]
| diagnosis       =
| differential    =
| prevention      =
| treatment       =[[psychotherapy|Counseling]], [[antidepressant medication]], [[electroconvulsive therapy]]
| medication      =
| prognosis       =
| frequency       =
| deaths          =
|alt=}}
For the purposes of medical [[Classification of mental disorders|diagnostic classification]], the terms "melancholia" and "melancholic" are still in use (for example, in [[ICD-11]] and [[DSM-5]]) to [[Melancholic depression|specify certain features]] that may be present in [[major depression]], referred to as '''depression with melancholic features''' such as:<ref name=":7">World Health Organization, "6A80.3 Current depressive episode with melancholia", International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 11th rev. (September 2020).</ref><ref name="DSM-5">{{cite book |author=American Psychiatric Association |author-link=American Psychiatric Association |title=Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®) |date=2013 |publisher=American Psychiatric Publishing |location=United States |isbn=978-0-89042-557-2 |page=185 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-JivBAAAQBAJ |language=en |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2021-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710224318/https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Diagnostic_and_Statistical_Manual_of_Men/-JivBAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=apa1>{{Cite book |last=American Psychiatric Association |url=https://psychiatryonline.org/doi/book/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 |title=Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders |date=2013-05-22 |publisher=American Psychiatric Association |isbn=978-0-89042-555-8 |edition=Fifth |language=en |doi=10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596}}</ref>
* severely depressed mood, wherein the person often feels despondent, forlorn, disconsolate, or empty
* pervasive anhedonia – loss of interest or pleasure in most activities that are normally enjoyable
* lack of emotional responsiveness (mood does not brighten, even briefly) to normally pleasurable stimuli (such as food or entertainment) or situations (such as warm, affectionate interactions with friends or family)
* terminal insomnia – unwanted early morning awakening (two or more hours earlier than normal)
* marked psychomotor retardation or agitation
* marked loss of appetite or weight loss

A specifier essentially is a subcategory of a disease, explaining specific features or symptoms that are added to the main diagnosis.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-05-17 |title=What's the DSM-5? |url=https://psychcentral.com/lib/dsm-5 |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Psych Central |language=en}}</ref> According to the [[DSM-IV]], the "melancholic features" specifier may be applied to the following only:
# [[Major depressive episode]], single episode
# [[Major depressive episode]], recurrent episode
# [[Bipolar I disorder]], most recent episode depressed
# [[Bipolar II disorder]], most recent episode depressed
It is important to note, however, that people who suffer from melancholic depression do not need to have melancholic features in every depressive episode.<ref name="psychologytoday.com">{{Cite web |title=The Darkest Mood: Major Depression With Melancholic Features {{!}} Psychology Today |url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/and-running/202110/the-darkest-mood-major-depression-melancholic-features |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=www.psychologytoday.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

====Signs and symptoms====
Melancholic depression requires at least one of the following symptoms during the last [[depressive episode]]:
* [[Anhedonia]] (the inability to find pleasure in positive things)
* Lack of mood reactivity (i.e. mood does not improve in response to positive/desired events; failure to feel better)
And at least three of the following:
* [[Depression (mood)|Depressed mood]] that is subjectively different from grief or loss (marked by despair, gloominess, and "empty-mood")
* Severe weight loss or loss of appetite
* Psychomotor agitation or retardation (i.e. increased or decreased movement, speech, and cognitive function)
* Early morning awakening (i.e. waking up at least 2 hours before the normal wake up time of the patient)
* Guilt that is excessive
* Worse depressed mood in the morning
Melancholic features apply to an episode of depression that occurs as part of either [[major depressive disorder]], [[dysthymia|persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia)]], or [[bipolar disorder]] [[Bipolar I disorder|I]] or [[Bipolar II disorder|II]].<ref name="DSM-5"/> They are more likely to occur in patients who suffer from [[Psychotic depression|depression with psychotic features]].<ref name=apa1 /> People with melancholic depression also tend to have more physically visible symptoms such as slower movement or speech.<ref name="psychcentral.com">{{Cite web |date=2022-11-03 |title=Melancholic Depression: Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Coping Tips |url=https://psychcentral.com/depression/melancholic-depression |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=Psych Central |language=en}}</ref>

====Causes====
The causes of melancholic [[major depressive disorder|depressive disorder]] are believed to be mostly biological factors that can be hereditary. Biological origins of the condition include problems with the [[Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis|HPA axis]] and [[Sleep architecture|sleep structure]] of patients.<ref name=gp1>{{Cite web |last=Parker |first=Gordon |title=Back to black: why melancholia must be understood as distinct from depression |url=http://theconversation.com/back-to-black-why-melancholia-must-be-understood-as-distinct-from-depression-38025 |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=The Conversation |date=6 September 2015 |language=en}}</ref> [[Magnetic resonance imaging|MRI studies]] have indicated that melancholic depressed patients have issues with the connections between different regions of the brain, specifically the [[Insular cortex|insula]] and [[Frontoparietal network|fronto-parietal cortex]].<ref>{{Cite journal| journal=Psychiatric Times |last=Gordon Parker |first=M. D. |date=2017-01-20 |title=An Update on Melancholia |url=https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/update-melancholia |series=Vol 34 No 1 |language=en |volume=34}}</ref> Some studies have found that there are [[Biomarker|biological marker]] differences between patients with melancholic depression and other subtypes of depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Spanemberg |first1=Lucas |last2=Caldieraro |first2=Marco Antonio |last3=Vares |first3=Edgar Arrua |last4=Wollenhaupt-Aguiar |first4=Bianca |last5=Kauer-Sant'Anna |first5=Márcia |last6=Kawamoto |first6=Sheila Yuri |last7=Galvão |first7=Emily |last8=Parker |first8=Gordon |last9=Fleck |first9=Marcelo P. |date=2014-08-19 |title=Biological differences between melancholic and nonmelancholic depression subtyped by the CORE measure |journal=Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment |language=English |volume=10 |pages=1523–1531 |doi=10.2147/NDT.S66504|pmid=25187716 |pmc=4149384 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

The research regarding melancholic depression consistently finds that men are more likely to receive a melancholic depression diagnosis.<ref name=mg1>{{Cite journal |last1=Gili |first1=Margalida |last2=Roca |first2=Miquel |last3=Armengol |first3=Silvia |last4=Asensio |first4=David |last5=Garcia-Campayo |first5=Javier |last6=Parker |first6=Gordon |date=2012-10-26 |title=Clinical Patterns and Treatment Outcome in Patients with Melancholic, Atypical and Non-Melancholic Depressions |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=7 |issue=10 |pages=e48200 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0048200 |issn=1932-6203 |pmc=3482206 |pmid=23110213 |bibcode=2012PLoSO...748200G |doi-access=free }}</ref>

====Treatment====
Melancholic depression, due to some fundamental differences with standard clinical depression or other subtypes of depression, has specific types of treatments that work, and the success rates for different treatments can vary.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-30 |title=What is melancholic depression? Symptoms, diagnosis, and more |url=https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/melancholic-depression |access-date=2023-03-28 |website=www.medicalnewstoday.com |language=en}}</ref><ref name=gp1 /> Treatment can involve [[antidepressants]] and [[Evidence-based practice|empirically supported treatments]] such as [[cognitive behavioral therapy]] and [[interpersonal therapy]] for depression.<ref name="Luty2007">{{Cite journal |last1=Luty |first1=Suzanne |last2=Carter |first2=Janet |last3=McKenzie |first3=Janice |year=2007 |title=Randomised controlled trial of interpersonal psychotherapy and cognitive-behavioural therapy for depression |journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry |volume=190 |issue=6 |pages=496–502 |doi=10.1192/bjp.bp.106.024729 |pmid=17541109 |doi-access=free}}
</ref>

Melancholic depression is often considered to be a biologically based and particularly severe form of depression. Therefore, the treatments for this specifier of depression are more biomedical and less psychosocial (which would include talk therapy and social support).<ref name="McGrath 2008">
{{cite journal|last=McGrath|first=Patrick |author2=Ashan Khan |author3=Madhukar Trivedi |author4=Jonathan Stewart |author5=David W Morris |author6=Stephen Wisniewski |author7=Sachiko Miyahara |author8=Andrew Nierenberg |author9=Maurizio Fava |author10=John Rush|title=Response to a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (Citalopram) in Major Depressive Disorder with Melancholic Features: A STAR*D Report|journal=Journal of Clinical Psychiatry|year=2008|volume=69|issue=12 |pages=1847–1855|doi=10.4088/jcp.v69n1201|pmid=19026268 }}</ref> The general initial or "ideal" treatment for melancholic depression is antidepressant medication, and psychotherapy is added later on as support if at all.<ref name="psychologytoday.com"/> The scientific support for medication as the best treatment is that patients with melancholic depression are less likely to improve with placebos, unlike other depression patients. This indicates the improvements observed after medication actually come from the biological basis of the condition and the treatment.<ref name=gp1 /> There are several types of antidepressants that can be prescribed including [[Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor|SSRIs]], [[Serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor|SNRIs]], [[tricyclic antidepressant]]s, and [[Monoamine oxidase inhibitor|MAOIs]]; the antidepressants tend to vary on how they work and what specific [[Neurotransmitter|chemical messengers]] in the brain they target.<ref name="psychcentral.com"/> SNRIs are generally more effective than SSRIs because they target more than one chemical messenger ([[serotonin]] and [[norepinephrine]]).<ref name=mg1 />

Although [[psychotherapy]] treatments can be used such as talk therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), they have shown to be less effective than medication.<ref name=gp1/> In a [[Randomized controlled trial|randomized clinical trial]], it was shown that CBT was less effective than medication in treating symptoms of melancholic depression after 12 weeks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gilfillan |first1=David |last2=Parker |first2=Gordon |last3=Sheppard |first3=Elizabeth |last4=Manicavasagar |first4=Vijaya |last5=Paterson |first5=Amelia |last6=Blanch |first6=Bianca |last7=McCraw |first7=Stacey |date=2014-05-01 |title=Is cognitive behaviour therapy of benefit for melancholic depression? |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010440X13003830 |journal=Comprehensive Psychiatry |language=en |volume=55 |issue=4 |pages=856–860 |doi=10.1016/j.comppsych.2013.12.017 |pmid=24461162 |issn=0010-440X}}</ref>

[[Electroconvulsive therapy]] (ECT) was previously believed to be an effective treatment for melancholic depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rasmussen |first=Keith G. |date=December 2011 |title=Electroconvulsive Therapy and Melancholia: Review of the Literature and Suggestions for Further Study |url=https://journals.lww.com/ectjournal/Abstract/2011/12000/Electroconvulsive_Therapy_and_Melancholia__Review.10.aspx |journal=The Journal of ECT |language=en-US |volume=27 |issue=4 |pages=315–322 |doi=10.1097/YCT.0b013e31820a9482 |pmid=21673591 |issn=1095-0680}}</ref> ECT has been more commonly used for patients with melancholic depression due to the severity. In 2010, a study found that 60% of depression patients treated with ECT had melancholic symptoms.<ref name="psychologytoday.com"/> However, studies since the 2000s have failed to demonstrate positive treatment results from ECT, although studies also indicate a more positive response to ECT in melancholic patients than other depressed patients.<ref name=gp1 /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rush |first1=Gavin |last2=O'Donovan |first2=Aoife |last3=Nagle |first3=Laura |last4=Conway |first4=Catherine |last5=McCrohan |first5=AnnMaria |author6-link=Cliona O'Farrelly |last6=O'Farrelly |first6=Cliona |last7=Lucey |first7=James V. |last8=Malone |first8=Kevin M. |date=2016-11-15 |title=Alteration of immune markers in a group of melancholic depressed patients and their response to electroconvulsive therapy |journal=Journal of Affective Disorders |language=en |volume=205 |pages=60–68 |doi=10.1016/j.jad.2016.06.035 |issn=0165-0327 |pmc=5291160 |pmid=27414954}}</ref>

It has been observed in studies that patients with melancholic depression tend to recover less often than other types of depression.<ref name=mg1 />

====Frequency====
The prevalence of having the melancholic depression specifier among patients diagnosed with clinical depression is estimated to be about 25% to 30%.<ref name="psychologytoday.com"/>

The incidence of melancholic depression has been found to increase when the temperature and/or sunlight are low.<ref name="radua2010">
{{Cite journal
 | last1 = Radua | first1 = Joaquim
 | last2 = Pertusa | first2 = Alberto
 | last3 = Cardoner | first3 = Narcis
 | title = Climatic relationships with specific clinical subtypes of depression
 | journal = Psychiatry Research
 | volume = 175
 | issue = 3
 | pages = 217–220
 | date = 28 February 2010
 | doi = 10.1016/j.psychres.2008.10.025
 | pmid = 20045197
| s2cid = 21764662
 }}
</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Psychology}}
{{Div col}}
* [[Boredom]]
* [[Dysthymia]]
* [[Got the morbs]]
* [[Melancholic depression]]
* ''[[Mono no aware]]''
* [[Nostalgia]]
* [[Pessimism]]
* ''[[Saudade]]''
* [[Spleen#Society and culture|Spleen]]
* [[Vapours (disease)]]
* ''[[Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy]]''
{{Div col end}}
<!--these should be incorporated into the body of the article, the bracketed refs converted to normal refs with full citations
* Melancholia is a specific form of mental illness characterized by depressed mood, abnormal motor functions, and abnormal vegetative signs. It has been identified in medical writings from antiquity and was best characterized in the 19th century. In the 20th century, with the interest in psychoanalytic writing, "[[Major depressive disorder|major depression]]" became the principal class in psychiatric classifications. [See Taylor MA, Fink M: Melancholia for details of history.]-->

==Citations==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
<!--these should be used in the article, i.e. converted to actual 'Sources' and cited-->
{{refbegin|40em}}
* Azzone, Paolo: ''Depression as a Psychoanalytic Problem''. University Press of America, Lanham, Md., 2013. {{ISBN|978-0-761-86041-9}}
* {{cite web |title=New BBC Radio Series: The Anatomy of Melancholy – Department of Psychiatry |url=https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/new-bbc-radio-series-the-anatomy-of-melancholy |website=www.psych.ox.ac.uk |access-date=2022-08-28 |archive-date=2022-05-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220511021948/https://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/news/new-bbc-radio-series-the-anatomy-of-melancholy |url-status=live }}, a twelve part series titled ''The New Anatomy of Melancholy'', looking at depression from the perspectives of Robert Burton's 1621 book ''The Anatomy of Melancholy''
* Blazer, Dan G.: ''The Age of Melancholy: "Major Depression" and its Social Origin''. Routledge, 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-415-95188-3}}
* Bowring, Jacky: ''A Field Guide to Melancholy''. Oldcastle Books, 2009. {{ISBN|978-1-842-43292-1}}
* Boym, Svetlana: ''The Future of Nostalgia''. Basic Books, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-465-00708-0}}
* [[Stanley W. Jackson|Jackson, Stanley W.]]: ''Melancholia and Depression: From Hippocratic Times to Modern Times''. Yale University Press, 1986. {{ISBN|978-0-300-03700-5}}
* Klibansky, Raymond; Panofsky, Erwin; Saxl, Fritz: ''Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art''. McGill-Queen's Press, 1964 [2019] {{ISBN|978-0-7735-5952-3}}
* Kristeva, Julia: ''Black Sun''. Columbia University Press, 1992. {{ISBN|978-0-231-06707-2}}
* Radden, Jennifer: ''The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva''. Oxford University Press, 2002. {{ISBN|978-0-195-15165-7}}
* Schwenger, Peter: ''The Tears of Things: Melancholy and Physical Objects''. University of Minnesota Press, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-816-64631-9}}
* Shenk, Joshua W.: ''Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness''. Mariner Books, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-618-77344-2}}
* Various: ''Melancholy Experience in Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century''. Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. {{ISBN|978-1-349-31949-7}}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wiktionary}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040625212125/http://www2.hammer.ucla.edu/etc/durer/ Grunwald Center website: Durer's ''Melencolia'' and clinical depression, iconography and printmaking techniques]
* [http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/2000/d/dowden53.html "Dürer's Melancholia": sonnet by Edward Dowden]
* [http://www.signandsight.com/features/710.html ''Melancholy and abstraction''], on the Berlin exhibition "Melancholy: Genius and Madness in Art"
* [http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0000.808 Diderot's historic writing on Melancholy]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b008h5dz "The Four Humours" on "In Our Time"]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b010y30m "An Anatomy of Melancholy" on "In Our Time"]
* [https://brill.com/view/book/9789004232549/B9789004232549-s013.xml At the Roots of Melancholy]

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{{Mental and behavioral disorders|selected = mood}}

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[[Category:Melancholia| ]]
[[Category:Obsolete terms for mental disorders]]
[[Category:Humorism]]
[[Category:Mood disorders]]
[[Category:Emotions]]