…must be endured,” said Robert Burton about melancholy, back in 1620. It’s considerate and a bit ironic that he should offer such a pithy description for the plight of melancholics and depressives, given that he literally wrote the book on the subject of enduring it, and in a new edition that book is a mereContinue reading ““What can’t be cured…”
Tag Archives: depression
The Wisdom of Melancholy: Alain de Botton
In 21st century America, melancholy seems passe, dated, all but forgotten. It's something that happens to people in Chekhov plays, or other countries. Everyone knows about depression, by contrast, and ten percent of Americans are taking anti-depressants, according to one study, and one in four middle-aged women. “It’s not only that physicians are prescribing more,Continue reading “The Wisdom of Melancholy: Alain de Botton”
Be true to your depression: James Hillman
The late great Jungian analyst James Hillman, on depression. Christian myth, the soul, and the path depression offers to those who experience it. From his compilation A Blue Fire: "Depression. Because Christ resurrects, moments of despair, darkening, and desertion cannot be valid in themselves. Our one model insists on light at the end of theContinue reading “Be true to your depression: James Hillman”
Mike Wallace, depression and the real “Blues Brothers”
Today was reported the death of the great reporter Mike Wallace, of 60 Minutes fame. Sharon Waxman, an excellent reporter herself, recalls meeting him, and hearing of a now forgotten side of Mike Wallace, and of his great friends Art Buchwald and William Styron too: [Mike] Wallace always seemed fearless and in fact on thatContinue reading “Mike Wallace, depression and the real “Blues Brothers””
Kit Stolz 