Lincoln’s Melancholy

Tom Swift, author of Chief Bender’s Burden, recommended Lincoln’s Melancholy (By Joshua Wolf Shenk) to me. I bought it two months ago but have yet to read it. I will, darn it, I will.

Price May Alleviate the Blues

It’s a portrait of Abraham Lincoln’s life struggle with depression…..Years of copious research resulted in an engrossing, nuanced profile that reveals the depression that profoundly influenced Lincoln’s life and character — an element of the great president’s makeup that may very well have been the most important one.

And some audio: NPR, All Things Considered: Exploring Abraham Lincoln’s ‘Melancholy’

Addendum – Oct 3, 2008: I finished reading this book two or three days ago. It is definitely a keeper. I would like to write more about it and what it specifically meant to me, but I’m still absorbing some of it. No, actually, more truthfully, I’m just slightly sleep-deprived right now and in a little pain from typing. I’d rather write about it when I’m not distracted by pain and more clear-headed. Here is an excerpt though, from Chapter 2:

The big difference is that today we often hear that the disease of depression is entirely distinct from the ordinary experience of being sad or in the dumps. But in the nineteenth-century conception of melancholy, these were part of the same overall picture. A person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with both an awful burden and what Byron called “a fearful gift.” The burden was a sadness and despair that could tip into a state of disease. But the gift was a capacity for depth, wisdom — even genius.

Thank you, Tom Swift, for recommending a book that will be one of the most influential in my life.

Related article: A Different View of Depression By Zania of Fraying Edges. Here is an excerpt:

Now to me, that is an extremely positive approach to depression. This is not dismissing the dreadful affects of depression, but is suggesting that the modern day stigma still often attributed to depression is totally unfounded. Those of us who suffer from depression, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, or any other forms of depressive illness, are not ‘rejects who need to sort themselves out’. In fact, many of us are actually very gifted individuals who, despite our illness (or even sometimes because of it) can contribute greatly to society.

additionally, the following is an excerpt from my comment to her post:

I will try to add some insight or whatever and stuff here now though (I haven’t yet on my own site). From chapter 3 of Lincoln’s Melancholy:

Previously, Lincoln had responded to his troubles by seeking help from others, either explicitly or implicitly. Now he spent an increasing amount of time alone. “Today, the fact that isolation can be therapeutic is seldom mentioned in textbooks of psychiatry,” writes Anthony Storr, in Solitude: A Return to the Self. Yet, Storr points out, the capacity to be alone, sometimes for long periods, can be profoundly important, as people come to terms with loss, sort out their ideas, or go through serious change. “That solitude promotes insight as well as change,” Storr continues, “has been recognized by the great religious leaders” — including the Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed — “who have usually retreated from the world before returning to it to share what has been revealed to them.”

I nearly jumped from my chair when I read that. I had already felt that about isolation to a degree being a necessity, and thought about it sometimes, but to read it in black and white was very nice, and a relief in a way. Paraphrasing my thoughts,

Cool… now I don’t have to feel guilty if I want to be alone, or if I’m not constantly making attempts to socialize and interact with people.