The Demise of Melancholy

This chapter discusses the historical demise – from the 19^th century onwards – of melancholy as the subject of a living tradition. Why do we now no longer use the language of melancholy, as people in Europe did for so many centuries? And what came in its place? Building on the analyses of the previous four chapters, this chapter argues that the demise of melancholy means that we have lost a language that incorporated the darker, negative aspects of our experience into an understanding of human nature in a meaningful way. Through an historical account of melancholy’s demise and replacement by depression, as well as an analysis of the discourse of depression itself, the chapter contends that melancholy was replaced by a notion (depression) that rather lacks the power for such a meaningful understanding of these experiences. It concludes that this replacement entailed the transition from a broad, interdisciplinary language filled with existential meaning and rooted in a long-standing living tradition, by a specialized and restricted language of pathology. Building on the analyses of the previous chapters, this chapter shows what the current discourse of depression lacks. Through its historical narrative, moreover, it explains why it lacks those things.