The ‘write cure’ for melancholy
IN THE current concern about the grim topic of depression, two terms come into play, namely melancholy and its earlier classical form melancholia.
Both terms derive from the medieval theory of the “humours”, which attributed mental and psychological characteristics to bodily fluids.
In this case melancholy, derived from the Greek term for black bile, was the supposed cause of depression. This seems very primitive.
The topic attracted many studies, notably Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), a vast encyclopaedic collection of quotations, wisdom and humour, including this quotation:
“I write of melancholy, being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness, no better cure than business (busyness).”
Burton was advocating “the writing cure”, which many authors attest to, but few have his knowledge, style and wit.
For most affluent people in the West this has been superseded by “the talking cure”, going to analysts.
Therapy or treatment seems to consist of two different forms, psychological and physical or both.
The psychological is very varied. The physical can be seen as a resuscitation of medieval thinking, using a regime of drugs to correct the imbalance of the mind. In all this, the soul has been left behind.
Geoff Hughes is an emeritus professor formerly with Wits University.