The Nature of Melancholy ─ From Aristotle to Kristeva

Spanning twenty four centuries, this anthology collects over thirty selections from important Western writing about melancholy and related conditions by philosophers, doctors, religious and literary figures, and modern psychologists. It reveals a conversation across centuries and continents as the authors interpret, respond to, and build on each other's work. Truly interdisciplinary, it is the first collection of original texts on melancholy, melancholia, and depression.
Arranged historically and accompanied by introductory notes for the general reader, the selections emphasize conceptual questions about the nature of melancholic states, their definition, classification, and alleged causal origin, as well as their characteristic signs, symptoms, and subjectivity. Among the selections are writings by such diverse authors as Galen, Hildegard of Bingen, Weyer, Rush, Keats, Baudelaire, Kraepelin, Freud, and Beck. This up-to-date collection presents recent authoritative translations of works either long out of print in English or never before translated into English.
This anthology will be an excellent text for courses in psychology, philosophy of mind, medicine, social work, women's studies, and cultural studies. The Nature of Melancholy will also be fruitful reading for those who suffer from depression, as well as their families, care-givers, clinicians, and therapists.

Jennifer Radden is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts at Boston.