The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva
Author(s): RADDEN (Author)
- Publisher: Oxford University Press
- Publication Date: 4 April 2002
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 391 pages
- ISBN-10: 0195151658
- ISBN-13: 9780195151657
Book Description
Spanning 24 centuries, this anthology collects over thirty selections of important Western writing about melancholy and its related conditions by philosophers, doctors, religious and literary figures, and modern psychologists. Truly interdisciplinary, it is the first such anthology. As it traces Western attitudes, it reveals a conversation across centuries and continents as the authors interpret, respond, and build on each other's work. Editor Jennifer Radden provides an extensive, in-depth introduction that draws links and parallels between the selections, and reveals the ambiguous relationship between these historical accounts of melancholy and today's psychiatric views on depression. This important new collection is also beautifully illustrated with depictions of melancholy from Western fine art.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"Philosophy practitioners will be delighted with The Nature of Melancholy. The book will both corroborate and deepen our current ways of addressing depression. Our work is not just aimed at helping clients suppress their bleak moods, but perhaps even more it is about helping them avoid becoming stuck in that mood, and thus unable to experience--or even acknowledge--that other moods exist, and that melancholy is merely one emotion among many. The book offers an overabundance of morsels of wisdom that can be directly applied in our work with clients. Among them are helping them deepen their attention and focus, especially on their soul; this in turn will make their inner life and their relationships with others richer."--Svetlana Correa, Philosophical Practice
"Lyrical language abounds in [this] compendium of historic and contemporary writings....Hildegard of Bingen conjectures that melancholy descends genetically from Adam, while, more recently, the post-Freudian linguist Julia Kristeva offers a modern theory that suggests an updated version of black bile."--The New Yorker
"Radden's invaluable anthology...scrupulously presents the key texts.... The Nature of Melancholy does an excellent job of tracing the history of efforts to find a language capable of sheltering humanity from that storm [in the mind]."--Times Literary Supplement
"With skill, Radden brings together in a single volume a marvelous collection of essays, excerpts, and writings on what is now usually called 'depression'. [Melancholy] will likely remain central to the human condition, and this book may be the best medicine for it....Radden has written a penetrating and lengthy introduction....Handsome illustrations complement this serious yet inviting work of scholarship."--Virginia Quarterly Review
"...for those who want to investigate the history of our concept of depression and relate it to wider medical and cultural themes, this collection is an excellent resource."--Metapsychology
Review
The first collection of original texts on melancholy, melancholia, and depression.
Review
"Philosophy practitioners will be delighted with The Nature of Melancholy. The book will both corroborate and deepen our current ways of addressing depression. Our work is not just aimed at helping clients suppress their bleak moods, but perhaps even more it is about helping them avoid becoming stuck in that mood, and thus unable to experience--or even acknowledge--that other moods exist, and that melancholy is merely one emotion among many. The book offers an overabundance of morsels of wisdom that can be directly applied in our work with clients. Among them are helping them deepen their attention and focus, especially on their soul; this in turn will make their inner life and their relationships with others richer."--Svetlana Correa, Philosophical Practice
"Lyrical language abounds in [this] compendium of historic and contemporary writings....Hildegard of Bingen conjectures that melancholy descends genetically from Adam, while, more recently, the post-Freudian linguist Julia Kristeva offers a modern theory that suggests an updated version of black bile."--The New Yorker
"Radden's invaluable anthology...scrupulously presents the key texts.... The Nature of Melancholy does an excellent job of tracing the history of efforts to find a language capable of sheltering humanity from that storm [in the mind]."--Times Literary Supplement
"With skill, Radden brings together in a single volume a marvelous collection of essays, excerpts, and writings on what is now usually called 'depression'. [Melancholy] will likely remain central to the human condition, and this book may be the best medicine for it....Radden has written a penetrating and lengthy introduction....Handsome illustrations complement this serious yet inviting work of scholarship."--Virginia Quarterly Review
"...for those who want to investigate the history of our concept of depression and relate it to wider medical and cultural themes, this collection is an excellent resource."--Metapsychology
About the Author
Jennifer Radden is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.
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