Depression and Melancholy, 1660-1800 - Leigh Wetherall Dickson

Depression and Melancholy, 1660-1800

By: Leigh Wetherall Dickson

1 July 2012

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As a psychiatric term 'depression' dates back only as far as the mid-nineteenth century. Before then a wide range of terms were used to describe the experience of lowness of spirits. 'Melancholy' carried enormous weight, culturally and medically and was one of the two confirmed forms of eighteenth-century insanity, both professionally and culturally. The twin statues 'Melancholy Madness' and 'Raving Madness' stood outside Bethlem Hospital as they had since the 1670s, patterns of diagnosis as much as of popular perception. At the same time the melancholy perspective could be associated culturally with enhanced sensitivity, as in the work of the poet Thomas Gray, with creative genius and intelligence - a belief that Johnson was later to warn Boswell against - and even with being in the height of fashion, as satirized by Pope in the 'Cave of Spleen' episode of Rape of the Lock. In the work of the poet William Cowper melancholy assumed an almost wholly religious aspect, with suicide as the only apparent release. This four-volume primary resource collection will be the first large-scale study of depression across an extensive period. It will be divided chronologically, with each volume addressing a particular theme. The first volume examines the relationship between religion and melancholy with particular emphasis on Methodism and evangelical Protestantism. The literature of Methodism in particular abounds with references to the sense of psychological despair experienced by those who believe themselves to have been forsaken by God. Volume two depicts a period of radical change in medical understanding, as attitudes towards the body and its functions became increasingly evidence-based, while volume three explores the ways in which depression was identified, experienced and described from the inside. Finally, the fourth volume will bring together a range of publications, including broadsides, songs, poems and essays in order to reconstruct the cultural context of depression at the close of the eighteenth century.
Industry Reviews
'an excellent anthology suited for introductory as well as advanced purposes of study.' BARS Bulletin

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