Melancholia (Meaning and Explanation)

We explain what melancholy is and how psychology and psychiatry understand it. Also, how is it different from sadness.

A woman in a melancholic attitude in Frieseke's painting. — Melancholy tends to introspection and loss of interest in everyday activities.

What is melancholy?

The melancholy is an uncertain type of sadness, often characterized as deep, silent, and abiding which has been known and has been described since Antiquity. It is characterized, in general, by being a reflective mood, which tends towards introspection and nostalgia, and can also border on depression and anhedonia (loss of interest and ability to feel pleasure).

Melancholy, a rather cultural concept, should not, however, be confused with melancholic depression and other forms of psychiatric illness that have been named with the same term.

Its name comes from Greek melancholiacomposed of the voices melas (“black”) and kholes (“bile”), since it was formerly associated with black bile, one of the four vital fluids of the human body according to the humoral theory of the Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 370 BC).

According to this medical theory, which remained in force until practically the middle of the 19th century, an accumulation of black bile produced by the spleen was responsible for certain diseases such as cancer, while its predominance in the body produced the melancholic temperament, that is, depressed, low on energy and lacking joy. Melancholy was also associated with the planet Saturn, which is why melancholic personalities were known throughout history as saturnines.

The melancholy It was understood as a physical and emotional condition for centuries, and cured with the most diverse remedies and treatments, which could range from music and dance sessions to exorcisms and homemade concoctions. Already in works like Anatomy of melancholy (1621) by the English clergyman Robert Burton (1577-1640) offered literary and medicinal solutions, while in the Encyclopedia (1751-1772) of Diderot and d'Alembert it was said that its causes were unsatisfied love and sexual desires.

You may be interested: History of Psychology

Starting in the 18th century, Romanticism gave melancholy a new meaning, associating it with artistic genius and the discontented individual, whose ideal representation was Shakespeare's Prince Hamlet. In fact, the English romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) dedicated a famous ode to melancholy, while many painters dedicated their paintings to him.

As part of the myth of the tormented artist, melancholy became associated with great sensibilities and artistic talent, until in the 19th century it came to be understood as a dual ailment, of both psychological and physical origin. In the words of the French novelist Victor Hugo (1802-1885), it is “the joy of being sad.”

Melancholy in psychology and psychiatry

In the field of mental health, the term “melancholy” can be used as a synonym for melancholic depression, a subtype of major depressive disorder, that is, a severe form of depression. In fact, depressions can be classified between melancholic (with fairly uniform features) and non-melancholic (with very varied features).

melancholic depressions are characterized by a combination of affective, cognitive, psychomotor and vegetative symptoms such as late insomnia, psychomotor retardation, weight loss, anhedonia, and a continuous feeling of guilt. Likewise, melancholic depressions can be classified into: bipolar melancholic depressions, delusional melancholic depressions, non-delusional melancholic depressions and Cotard syndrome.

A higher incidence rate of this type of depression has been reported in people who live in cold latitudes with little sunlight, and it is normally treated with antidepressants and supportive psychotherapy.

Difference between melancholy and sadness

A group of women cries in a moment of sadness. — Sadness can be caused by grief, love rejection or other ordinary situations.

In general terms, It could be said that melancholy is a specific type of sadness, which presents deep and specific features linked to existential questions, for example.

You may be interested: Cooperative Learning

In that sense it can be very different from sadness, usually caused by grief, love rejection or other ordinary sad situations. In fact, melancholy can be described as a type of rational sadness, which It passes through the intellect and reasoning, while other forms of temporary sadness tend to be ephemeral and visceral.

Difference between melancholy and nostalgia

There are differences between melancholy and nostalgia, although they are closely linked. Nostalgia is usually described as an intense longing for the past which pushes individuals to remember and evoke situations, places or people from the past. In that sense, nostalgia implies a bittersweet feeling which combines gratitude for what was experienced with the sadness of not being able to experience it again.

On the other hand, melancholy is generally a vague form of sadness of a permanent or long-lasting type, which is not necessarily triggered by tragic events or painful situations.

Phrases about melancholy

Some famous phrases about melancholy are the following:

“Melancholy characterizes those with a magnificent sense of the sublime” – Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher.
“Melancholy is the joy of being sad” – Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French novelist.
“Melancholy is a memory that is ignored” – Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880), French novelist.
“The heartless have no need for melancholy” – Vladimir Odoyevsky (1803-1869), Russian philosopher and writer.
“There is a life and there is a death, and there is beauty and melancholy in between” – Albert Camus (1913-1960), French novelist.
“Melancholy is sadness that has acquired lightness” – Italo Calvino (1923-1985), Italian writer.
“Depression is melancholy without its charms” – Susan Sontag (1933-2004), American writer.