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1. Introduction
3
2 THE FULL TEXT OF ON MELANCHOLY
Problemata xxx.i
4
while some of them obviously possessed a natural inclination to 935a30
affections of this kind. In a word, they are all, as stated,
naturally melancholic.
The cause of this may be understood if we first take as
example the effect of wine, which if taken in large
quantities appears to produce such qualities as we attribute
to the melancholic. 935a35
6
organs through lust when they are approaching the age of puberty.
The swelling of the organ becomes manifest because air passes
through the passages through which the semen passes later on. 954a
Also the effusion and impetus of the semen in sexual intercourse is
clearly due to propulsion by air. So those foods and liquids which fill
the region of the sexual organs with air are rightly regarded as
954a5
aphrodisiac. Thus dark wine more than anything else
produces the condition also found in melancholic persons. This
condition is obvious in some individuals; for most melancholic
persons are thin and their veins stand out, the reason being the
954a10
abundance not of blood but of air.
The reason why all melancholic persons are not thin or dark, but
only those who contain particularly unhealthy humors, is stated
elsewhere.
But to return to our first question, this bodily fluid, or
humor, namely melaina cholè, is always, by nature, present
in the body. It is characterized as a mixture of heat and
cold, two aspects of nature. That is why black bile, (melaina
cholè), can become both very hot and very cold. 954a15
For one and the same thing naturally admits both heat and
cold, like water, which, though cold, yet when it is
sufficiently heated (for example, when it boils) is hotter
than the actual flame which heats it. Similarly a stone or a
piece of iron when thoroughly heated becomes hotter than
charcoal, though they are naturally cold. 954a20
7
character from the small amount of black bile they receive
from their daily food, only showing perhaps now and again
some minor ailment. However those who naturally possess
a melancholic temperament immediately develop diverse
characters in accordance with their various temperaments
(temperatures). 954a30
8
So the announcement of something alarming can make a
melancholic cowardly, if it occurs when his temperament is
somewhat cold. For the black bile has already prepared a
way for the entrance of fear, and fear has a chilling effect,
as is shown by the fact that those who are greatly alarmed
tremble. If and when the temperament is hot, fear reduces
its temperature, making a man calm and insensible to
danger. 954b15
9
bodily fluid and its temperature, the mixture of hot and
cold. If it be cold beyond due measure, it produces
groundless despondency. 954b35
10
more cheerful, the old more despondent, the former being
hot and the latter cold; for old age is a process of cooling.
Cooling down can also take place suddenly due to external
causes, just as objects which have been heated in the fire
are cooled by unnatural processes, 955a20
for example when water is poured over hot coals. Hence men
sometimes commit suicide after drunkenness. For the heat of the
wine is introduced from outside, and when the internal fire of
the black bile is extinguished the condition which leads to
suicide is created.
Also (by the sudden cooling down of temperament) most people
tend to be despondent after sexual intercourse. Those, however, who
emit a considerable amount of liquid with the semen, become more
cheerful, for they are relieved of an excess of liquid and air. 955a25
11
some (externally induced) illness, but due to their natural
constitution.
12
COMMENTS
13
3 THE SCOPE OF MELANCHOLY GENIUS
The term ‘filosofia’ refers not only to philosophy but also to the
fields that have since set themselves apart from philosophy: sciences
such as physics, astronomy and biology, sociology and psychology.
The term ‘politikè’ referred to everything that had a bearing on the
organisation of the city-state or ‘polis’: politics and administration,
legislation and jurisdiction, and what would now be called
‘management’. For the preservation of the polis the expertise of the
military commander or ‘strategos’ was particularly important. In this
connection Aristotle mentions the great general Lysander.
The word ‘poèsis’ is not just poetry, but simply means ‘creating’,
14
making something new. Aristotle might be alluding primarily to the
great tragedy writers of his days. But the word can also be translated
broadly as ‘creator’ of immaterial goods such as poetry or music, and
of material goods such as buildings, ships, or sculptures.
‘Tèchnè’ means ‘craftsmanship’ and can allude to any applied
knowledge, to areas of expertise such as law, ethics, and medicine,
and to what would now be called ‘business’; ‘oikonomia’: (oikos =
house, nomos = habits). Not mentioned in this sentence, but evident
from the text is the role Aristotle sees for ecstasy in religion and
prophecy. In this connection he refers to the Sybilles xxx.1.954 a 33,
a word that was used, in a wide sense, for female soothsayers.
Where the positive effects of melancholy are concerned Aristotle
does not draw a sharp line between religious, artistic, and more
practical or ‘rational’ activities. In almost any field of human activity
he perceives aberrations in behaviour and mood among those who
perform exceptionally well.
Perhaps Aristotle sympathised with his extraordinary
contemporaries because he too suffered from mood swings. Did he
tacitly count himself among the brilliant melancholics he described?
There is no evidence of any extremity in his mood. If Aristotle
suffered from melancholy, it was a very mild form of the disorder.
15
4 ARISTOTLE ON ‘BIPOLAR’ MELANCHOLY
17
‘Owing to the fact that the effect of black bile (melaina cholè) is
variable, melancholic persons also show variation. For the black
bile can become very hot and very cold. 955a35
In melancholics the moods are more extreme. For them the mood
changes are structural, part of their nature.
On the one hand, those who are originally full of cold black bile
‘(melaina cholè) become dull and stupid, whereas those who
possess a large quantity of hot black bile become clever or erotic,
ecstatic or easily moved to anger and desire, while some become
more loquacious, loose lipped or chatty. 954a35
‘Owing to the fact that the effect of black bile (melaina cholè) is
variable, melancholic persons also show variation. For the black
bile can become very hot and very cold. 955a35
19
woken. Such tragic incidents are the exception rather than the rule,
but they do indicate to what extremes black bile can drive those
afflicted by a surplus thereof.
It is evident from this brief summary that Aristotle’s notion of
melancholy is bipolar.
I am not alone in this conclusion. Klibansky23, Panofski, and Saxl
argue in ‘Saturn and Melancholy’ that it is such two-poled melancholy in
particular that Aristotle associates with exceptional achievements.
Professor of Greek medicine, Philip van der Eijk24, perceives
remarkable similarities with the ‘manic-depressive syndrome’.
Psychologist and professor of psychiatry Kay Redfield Jamison25
points to the relation between the Aristotelian notion of melancholy
and the manic-depressive disorder. The philosopher Heidi
Northwood26 also sees a link between Aristotle’s notion of
melancholy and the concept of bipolar disorder.
By reading Aristotle’s text explicitly in relation to manic-
depression this ancient little work gains significantly in relevance. The
Greek thinker’s description of characteristics of melancholy turns out
to be surprisingly close to modern-day enumeration of the symptoms
of bipolar disorder.
20
5 CHARACTERISTICS OF MELANCHOLY
21
Cold black bile leads to despondent moods and a lack of inspiration.
Then the melancholic is easily moved to tears, subject to sadness
without cause. He feels despised, hated, even, or especially, by the
gods. He is pessimistic, anxious, cowardly, and sometimes desperate.
He is slow in movement and understanding, and not very talkative.
He avoids human contact. In extreme cases he will hang or otherwise
destroy himself.
When the black bile warms up, the opposite phenomena occur.
Now the melancholic is elated, exalted, even ecstatic, beside himself
with joy. He is very enthusiastic (literally én-thuos or en-thusiasmos:
inspired, entered by a god.) He is oversensitive both in the good and
the bad sense, that is to say, easily animated, and easily irritated. His
thinking is quick, he has many associations and emerging ideas. He is
optimistic and glows with self-confidence. It makes him courageous,
sometimes reckless. He is good-looking, agile and supple in his
movements. When his black bile is hot, the melancholic doesn’t need
much sleep, but when he does sleep he might have prophetic dreams.
He is eloquent, even loquacious, and he loves to sing. He is
philanthropic, adores people, and falls easily in love. But he can also
become querulous, even furious, and, particularly when he goes
insane (manic), aggressive. After such a fit he can fall into a coma.
22
Cold black bile characteristics associated with Hot black bile
Uninspired, vexed, out of tune, Enthusiastic, inspired (manikos)
(athumia)-Eats his own feeling,
hart (thumon katedon)
23
6 MELANCHOLY HEROES
BELLEPHERONTES AND AJAX
‘he pushed the immense stone up with both hands. Using al the
energy that was in him, he succeeded in rolling the stone to the
top of the hill, but he did not manage to push it over the top,
because it suddenly came crashing down. And the poor Sisyphos
had to start that heavy task again, right from the beginning, with
the sweat pouring from his body and dust covering his face.’
24
Chimera, so that he could easily pelt the monster with arrows from a
tactically superior position. He pushed a lump of lead down her
throat, which was melted by her own fiery breath, and it gushed
down and scorched her lungs and heart. These feats show impressive
strategic thinking.
After this success Bellerophontes became reckless. On his
flying horse he set out to reach the Olympus, the residence of the
gods. But Zeus, irritated by this arrogant human, sent a horsefly
which stung Pegasus under its tail. The flying horse panicked and
threw Bellerophontes off. Freed from its burden, Pegasus flew to the
Olympus, where Zeus used her henceforth as carrier animal for his
thunderbolts. But Bellerophontes fell back into the depths. As
Aristotle quotes Homer:953a2
“Hated by all the gods, he wandered alone over the Aleian plain,
eating his own heart out, and avoiding the pathway of mortals.”27
The fate of Ajax was even more tragic. As Homer relates in the Iliad,
this hero fought on the Greek side against Troy. His pitiful end is
depicted in Aias, a tragedy by Sophocles. The Roman poet Ovid
refers to his tragic fate in Metamorphoses.
Ajax, the story goes, gushed with confidence. He saved the Greeks
from ruin on the beach of Troy. Only he dared take on the Trojan
hero Hector who had challenged the Greeks. This courageous man
was willing to commit himself totally: but he díd expect appreciation.
Unfortunately, as these things go, he did not receive the honour he
had counted on. When the arms of the fallen Achilles were awarded,
not to him, but to that fawner Odysseus, he became furious. He
wanted to smash the Greeks for the insult. But the goddess Athena
struck him with madness, so that he mistook a herd of sheep for his
former allies. He hacked away at the animals, convinced that they
were the Greek commanders. Coming to his senses he was so
overtaken by shame that, notwithstanding the pleas of his slave-
girlfriend, and the pain it would give his parents, he committed
suicide.
25
Ovid says of him
The myth has it that the hero’s madness was inspired by a god.
Aristotle has a secular explanation for the hero’s misfortune. Not
divine intervention but black bile caused his disastrous mood swings.
The threat of suicide hanging over the melancholic is exemplified
by the fateful death of Ajax. The brave hero was first brought to
madness by a relatively minor incident. To be deferred in honour is
insulting, but usually not lethal. The melancholic Ajax was more
sensitive to such impulses because his black bile reacted so rapidly
and intensely. In a rage he hacked away at the sheep, in a delusion
that they were his former allies, the Greeks. Returning to his senses,
the hero realized what he had done. Feelings of shame accompanied
a fast cooling down of the ‘melaina cholè’. According to Aristotle
that could lead to suicide.
26
original solutions for difficult strategic problems. He managed to
operate from a superior position. He had the sense to fight his
opponent by means of its own strength, the fiery breath. Symbolically
if not literally he experienced the exhilaration of the flight on the
winged horse associated with light or (hypo)mania.
Or was the Chimera29 a hallucination? As the black bile became
hotter the hero’s courage grew into recklessness. His ambition grew.
In this interpretation, hypomania quickly developed into outright
mania, with hallucinations of a fire-spitting goat. Goaded by victory
he set himself impossible targets. He wanted to sit with the Olympian
gods. The summit of manic hubris!
Then, suddenly, his mood fell; not through a trick of Zeus, but
because the black bile suddenly cooled down. Pegasus gone, that
euphoric sense of flying, gone, superior insight, hope, courage, self-
confidence and charisma, allgone. Bellerophontes fell into deep
despair. The once popular young man sought loneliness, avoided
human contact. The melancholy hero is no longer the favourite of
the gods. He now feels that the gods hate him. The myth of
Bellerophontes can be read as the story of an exceptional
melancholic, whose black bile was comfortably warm at first, then
very hot, to subsequently cool down to an icy temperature.
According to Aristotle melancholy is a natural disorder. The fate of
Bellerophontes’ grandfather Sisyphus whose soul was doomed to go
up and down eternally, provides a clue to his grandson’s affliction.
27
7 THE MANIC HERACLES
Insanity:
‘The sun is my witness, that I am acting against my will. If Fate
demands that I help Hera...then I will go to him...Furious sea with
groaning waves, nor earthquake nor thunder nor fear will show
such a fury as I...
I will destroy his house, his palace after having murdered his
children. He will not know they are his children, until he comes
round.’ Euripides, 850 etc
In a temporary fit of insanity, the hero murders his own wife and
sons, mistaking them for enemies. After this manic fury he falls into a
deep sleep. When he awakes the atrocity of the deed dawns on him.
He collapses, barely able to walk, and is on the verge of committing
suicide, when Theseus, his ‘therapeus’ or brother in arms, stops him.
28
Theseus had accompanied Hercules through the underworld, and
now takes the broken hero to Athens, where he finds peace and
forgiveness. Heracles recuperates, and continues his adventurous life.
In a second play, The Children of Heracles, Euripides describes how
at the end of his life Heracles becomes insane once more. He climbs
onto a funerary pyre which he lights himself. From there the hero
ascends to mount Olympus where he is welcomed into the circle of
the gods.
From Aristotle’s secular perspective Heracles’ descent into hell
could be a metaphor for deep melancholic lethargy. He was ‘as if
dead’, his paralysed body corpse-like, his soul supposedly in Hades.
His victory over the black hellhound could be taken to mean that he
overcame his deep despondency. As so many people awakening from
deep depression, he seemed reborn, raised from the dead.
He returned home and found his family threatened by the local
tyrant and deserted by his former supporters. This injury strongly
affected the oversensitive melancholic. His mood shifted to the other
extreme. Coming out of deep despondency, his black bile rose in
temperature, giving him the courage and strength to strike down the
tyrant. Then his melaina cholè became so hot, that he persevered in
senseless violence. He was so manic that he no longer recognized his
own family. He slaughtered his wife and children. This episode of
outrageous violence was followed by deep sleep, by a coma.
When he woke up he was horrified by what he had done. He fell
into the other extreme of deep despair and wanted to kill himself. His
therapeus, who had accompanied him on his journey through hellish
lethargy took him away to a place where he could rest and come to
terms with his guilt.
Heracles recovered and lived an exceptional life for many years,
accomplishing a whole series of impressive feats. Neither his hellish
lethargy nor his extreme mania had swept away his remarkable
talents.
Was his death tragic? On the one hand, yes: he finally committed
suicide. On the other hand: he ascended to join the gods. By
29
worshipping him as a god the Greeks stressed that Heracles was not
guilty of his manic deeds. These horrors in no way diminished their
admiration for his exceptional achievements. Up until the first
century AD Heracles was honoured as a liberator and a god.
The fate of such tragic heroes was the backdrop Aristotle’s
statement in the first chapter of his main philosophical work,
Metaphysics,
‘If there is truth in what the poets say, that the gods are by nature
jealous, then all outstanding people are fated to be unhappy.’ 982b
30
8. THE MELANCHOLY GENIUS
Aristotle also looks for excellence in mania, but finds it especially in the
lighter manic episodes, in what is now called ‘hypomania’. In his view it
31
is not so much illogical sadness or cold melancholy, which lies at the
bottom of creativity. Excellence is to be expected when the black bile
has been slightly heated. In another essay, On Sleep and Dreams Aristotle
explains how melancholics are very sensitive to outside impulses. Their
minds open up to all kind of impressions. Their ability to make links
between these impressions increases.
‘Due to the susceptibility and liveliness of their minds, they have a
myriad of associations and ideas.’ 464 a 34
The large amount of impressions which seep into the mind of the
melancholic is of great significance. In Aristotle’s empirically inclined
view, all knowledge is ultimately derived from observation. Whoever
is more sensitive, more perceptive than others will also be more
capable. At first the melancholic stores the impressions he absorbs,
all the ‘fantasmata’ or images of the outside world, deep down in his
memory. He is unable to recall them at will, which leaves an
impression of forgetfulness. But when the black bile warms up again,
his memory is broken open and the bubbling up of the stored
‘fantasmata’ can no longer be stopped. 463b17 The melancholic will
suddenly see all sorts of novel connections between the impressions
he received over time.
Such an unpredictable, uncontrollable soul is creative, but he
cannot and will not create on demand. He is obstinate. In On Memory
and Recollection Aristotle pursues this point. Once the associative
thinking stimulated by warm melancholy has taken off, there is no
way of stopping it. It flies like a well-aimed arrow from the bow. It
goes straight to its target. This hitting of the bull’s eye is the essence
of excellence.
32
ground for exceptional creativity. It is the mild mood swing as such
that carries the possibility of excellence.
Melancholy becomes a problem if the temperature of the black
bile becomes very extreme, either too cold or too hot. No
exceptional achievements can be expected from a raging Heracles, a
mad Ajax, or a despondent Bellerophontes. But during their milder
highs they were brave and very effective. Thus Aristotle concludes
that it is well tempered melancholy which can lead talent to greatness.
33
‘Through what is it that all those who have become eminent in
philosophy or politics or poetry or the arts turn out to be
melancholics’ ?
Neither does it fit with other statements in the essay such as
34
be expected in a male dominated society? Not entirely. He explicitly
points to the extraordinary gifts of the Sybille’s, in Greek a name for
women who perceived and expressed truths overlooked by other
people.
According to Aristotle, the nature of creative melancholics does
not allow them to become entirely normal, completely stable.
Abnormality is their strength. But also their weakness. They can fall
prey to tragic excesses. They can descend into the hell of extreme
grief and lethargy and even commit suicide. Or they can rise to the
heights of destructive mania. The fates of Bellerophontes, Ajax and
Heracles serve as so many warnings to outstanding melancholics.
But with care, talented melancholics can avoid the fate inherent to
them. Stabilizing the temperature of black bile is of eminent
importance, to free their creative talents. Such tempering of their
melancholy temperature is therefore essential, not only for
melancholics and their direct environment, but for society as a whole.
Seen from this wider cultural perspective some of the philosopher’s
remarks on medication and lifestyle or ‘ethics’ take on an extra
dimension.
35
9 ARISTOTLE ON MEDICATION AND LIFESTYLE
36
‘Go get thee to Anticyra!’
37
‘Virtue is then....the observance of the mean state between two
vices, one of excess and one of defect.’II.vi.15-16
‘And similarly there can be excess, deficiency, and the due mean
in actions; and feelings and actions in excess and deficiency are
errors, while the mean is praised and constitutes success.’ II. vi.12
The trio’s of one virtue and two vices Aristotle discusses is rendered
in the following table. 31
38
Aristotle’s concept of virtue as the mean between
too little and too much
39
a particular moment. This can be achieved simply by moving towards
its opposite.
40
10 TRAGEDY AS THERAPY
41
identification with a respected hero who is also the victim of his own
deeds, of fate itself, that the audience can accept their own fallibility,
thus cleansing itself from its own feelings of guilt and remorse.
As a stage character, a melancholic such as Heracles is an ideal
therapeutic personality, who satisfies Aristotle’s criteria perfectly.
High-principled, courageous and successful, he deeply impressed the
audience. This makes the murder of his family, committed in a state
of mania, all the more painful. Heart-rending is the scene in which he
becomes aware of his crime.
‘Heracles:
“Oh, children I who gave you life and breath have taken them
from you again. No advantage did my noble deeds bring you,
performed for your sakes, meant to build for you a life of repute, a
noble inheritance from a father.
And you, poor wife, so patiently did you always care for home and
hearth, how did I reward your loving goodness? – I killed you!
Oh I weep for my wife and my children, for myself!”’
Euripides, Heracles, 1368
The onlookers, bathed in sweat, let their tears stream. All they want
is to forgive Heracles. Compared to that, their own faults, their own
vicissitudes, are nothing. Through intense empathy with the tragic
hero the audience is cleansed of its guilt, reconciled to its own fate.
Reconciliation is particularly important to melancholics who, perhaps
more often than others, are overtaken by moods, and act in ways they
later regret. Particularly for them the tragedies of exceptional and
famous melancholics act both as a consolation and indeed a warning,
not to succumb to the extreme fate of the tragic characters.
42
11 THE TALENTED CASSANDRA
43
Aeschylus investigated Cassandra’s problem in his play Agamemnon.
Euripides, the ‘feminist’ among the tragedy poets, depicts the
troubled soothsayer in Trojan Women. Both poets treat her with
respect. They do not doubt her abilities. Her strange, sometimes
frightening behavior is put into perspective by the slaughter
committed by ‘normal’ people going on behind stage: massacres and
disasters that could have been prevented if only Cassandra’s warning
had been heeded!
Not being understood is often the tragic fate of dissidents,
especially if they are seen to be ‘ek-static’, or out of their minds. The
deep suffering of Cassandra is bound up with her disorder. Someone
who can foresee the ruin of her people at the pinnacle of their feast is
not fated for everyday happiness. Her suffering is worsened by her
inability to convey her message.
The perception of Cassandra depends on who’s talking. Her rival
Clytemnestra despises her for her insanity and supposedly limited
intelligence. The girl is uninhibited, she raves and rages, and can only
be restrained after she has dropped down foaming33. The Greek who
is charged with arranging the division of Trojan women among the
victors fears the mad girl. She raves like a follower of the wine god
Bacchus, and might at any moment turn to senseless violence, as
followers of that cult are wont to do. These are the voices of
prejudice.
The choir expresses the ambivalence of enlightened public
opinion. They recognize her exceptional talents, but can’t make sense
of her ravings. Her mother Hekabe, whom fate has indeed burdened
heavily, remains worried to the last about her gifted but vulnerable
daughter. Or does she share in the prejudice? Is she ashamed of her
disturbed child? It depends upon which translation one reads.
According to one translation, Hekabe says the following:
44
Hekabe, we must remember has lost her husband and almost all her
sons, has seen her city go up in flames, and will now be separated
from her daughters and, in her old age, become a slave. Is it likely
that the former Trojan queen worries about the impression her
disturbed child will make on the enemy? Such mothers exist. But the
Hekabe is of a different breed. Her motherly concern for her fragile
daughter never ends. According to another translation, which stays
closer to the original Greek, Hekabe says:
But what, as a modern therapist might ask, what, Cassandra, are your
own feelings? She herself suffers immensely from her affliction.
But she does feel divine inspiration. As Euripides has her say
45
‘I am inspired, (‘entheos’) by a god. But I’m not one of the
Bacchante34, It is Apollo, the elevated god of sciences and arts,
who fills me with inspiration. My enthusiasm is due to the god
of insight, of the clarity of sunlight.’ Trojan Women, l. 366
46
He explains the myth that prophecies are due to divine inspiration by
pointing to the fact that the visions melancholics receive take on a
life of their own. Something similar happens to the warrior, who
loses control over his spear as soon as he lets it go. Visions and
spears come from a person, but then follow their own course.
But if it is not a question of divine inspiration, how can it be
explained that a simple prophetess often speak the truth? It’s simply
because there are so many images going through her head, there’s
always a chance she might pick the right one. A heated melancholica
has an exceptional ability to string all the impressions she receives
together, in combinations others would never have thought of. Thus
she often sees the obvious, which evades common understanding.
Obstinately she hangs on to those unusual associations, and no
external influence can turn her away from her goal.
47
12. ARISTOTLE’S INHERITANCE
‘We can believe with Aristotle never did a great talent exist
which was not also slightly mad’
Seneca
48
Seneca, On Peace of Mind IX.10-11
‘And they with whose madness joy is associated, laugh, play, dance
night and day, and sometimes go openly to the market crowned,
as if victors in some contest of skill; this form is inoffensive to
those around. Others have madness attended with anger; and
these sometimes rend their clothes and kill their keepers, and lay
violent hands upon themselves. This miserable form of disease is
Ch VI on mania
not unattended with danger to those around.’
49
Aretaeus does see a link between mania and melancholy in the sense
that a person’s mind can turn from one extreme to the other. In his
experience melancholy can sometimes be the beginning of the
opposite state, mania.
He notes the changeability of one and the same person from one
state to the other.
‘mania intermits, and with care ceases altogether. And there may
be an imperfect intermission, if it take place in mania when the
evil is not thoroughly cured by medicine, or is connected with the
temperature of the season. For in certain persons who seemed to
50
be freed from the complaint, either the season of spring, or some
error in diet, or some incidental heat of passion, has brought on a
relapse.’
Aretaeus gives only brief mention of the positive side of the illness,
but like Aristotle he couples it to the mild forms of high mood, not
to low mood.
‘But the modes are infinite in those who are talented, creative and
learned,--untaught astronomy, spontaneous philosophy, poetry
truly from the muses.’
51
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280), an ecclesiastical philosopher with a
medical education and a great interest in nature.
Two centuries later, the Italian philosopher and physician Ficino
(1433-1499), who admitted to suffering from melancholy himself,
made Aristotle’s ideas more widely accessible. In the course of his
astrological studies, then considered a full-fledged branch of science,
he linked melancholy to the planet Saturn, under whose influence
many melancholy intellectuals supposedly stood. Ficino followed
Aristotle in distinguishing two sides of melancholy, and warning
against both extremes. He summarizes Aristotle’s ideas as follows:
Indeed, learned men could be the happiest people if they did not
also undergo the negative effects of black bile, such as depression
or sometimes even madness, ...that is why you must try to regulate
the temperature of your black bile...Melancholy tends towards
both extremes.. if extremely hot it brings forth extreme courage,
even fanaticism...extremely cold it produces fear and extreme
cowardice.
52
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
‘If there is a hell on earth, then it must be in the heart of one who
suffers melancholy.’ Burton, p.146
53
moments there is a cowardly depression, a deep confusion or even
despair.’ Pinel, Traité 1800,40
54
condition without saying anything about its cause. What it is that
depresses patients remains an open question, to be answered by
further research and diagnosis. This advantage the term ‘depression’
shares with the Greek word ‘mania’ which likewise reveals nothing
about its cause, be it divine, biochemical or social. Griesinger himself
was aware of the other pole of the disorder the ‘psychological state of
exaltation’.41
The French doctor Jules Falret was the first to point to the
circular character of the illness, introducing the term ‘forme circulaire
de maladie mentale’ in 1851. His colleague Baillanger described the
malady two years later as ‘la folie á double forme.’ The ensuing
discussion motivated the French Medical Academy to hold an essay
competition on the question:
The winner was the French psychiatrist Ritti who presented his view
in 1883, in Traité Clinique de la Folie á Double Forme.
The term ‘manic depressive’ was formally introduced into
psychiatry at the Conference for European Medicine in 1885. The
notion was elaborated by the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, in
the successive editions of his handbook Psychiatrie.42 With his term
‘cirkuläres Irresein’, he emphasized the recurring character of
depressive and manic episodes. In this way he distinguished this
illness, with its long periods of normalcy, from disorders of a more
continuous and degenerative character. Aristotle had probably not
noticed the cyclical nature of the disease. Only when melancholics or
manic-depressives could be systematically observed by experts over
for longer periods of time could the cyclical character of the illness be
established.
Thus, as the term ‘manic-depressive’ won ground, the term
‘melancholy’ became marginal in medicine. In literary circles it evokes
a rather innocuous despondency or nostalgic wistfulness. So current
has that unipolar meaning of melancholy become, that the original
meaning, a terrible bipolar mental affliction, has practically
55
disappeared. Thus so many contemporary writers, such as Porter,
Radden, and Solomon more or less equate Aristotle’s concept of
melancholy with a unipolar mood disorder, depression. They fail to
see that Aristotle’s concept of melancholy is much nearer to
Kraepelin’s ‘manic-depressive syndrome43.
In the last few decades the word ‘bipolar’ has become en vogue.
This term was introduced by the American K. Leonhard in 1957, to
make a clear distinction between ‘unipolar’ depression and the mood
disorder with depression and mania (or hypomania). In 1980 the term
‘bipolar mood disorder’ was included in the authoritative DSM-III44,
and was shortly thereafter adopted by the World Health
Organization. This term made it easier to distinguish different
degrees of the malady’s intensity. The term ‘Bipolar I’ is used for the
variant of the disorder in which both deep depression and intense
mania occur. Bipolar II indicates the variant with recurrent
depressions in which the mood is never elevated beyond hypomania.
A pattern of lighter mood swings to both sides is called ‘cyclothymia’.
This terminology is more limited and more precise than Aristotle’s
and leaves room both for differences in gradation and a combination
of causes, somatic and socio-psychic.
56
13 RELEVANCE FOR TODAY
57
no more than a burden. In this era of empirical research and statistics
absolute pronouncements are avoided.
However recent research conducted by prominent psychiatrists
does indicate a special relation between creativity and bipolar mood
disorder. Ronald Fieve, Nancy Andreasen, Julian Lieb, Peter Dally,
John Gartner, Nassir Ghaemi and last but not least, Kay Redfield
Jamison agree that creative persons suffer from bipolar mood
disorder more often than the rest of the population, and that
extremes can and must be avoided.
Nancy Andreasen investigated groups of living American writers45.
To her surprise 80 % suffered from mood disorder. 13 % were
Bipolar I, 30 % Bipolar II, and 37 % suffered from unipolar
depression. Their relatives also showed mood disorders relatively
often, and were more creative than average. The gist of these results
was confirmed by the research of Kay Redfield Jamison among
English writers46. Ruth Richard investigated exceptional and everyday
creativity among bipolars in Denmark47. Hagop Akiksal researched
creativity among a large number of French and American patients
suffering from mood disorder48.
The case history of ‘famous bipolars’ from the past point in the
same direction. Kay Redfield Jamison discusses many artists,
composers, poets and writers, such as Vincent van Gogh, Robert
Schumann and Lord Byron in her classic book Touched with Fire. In
their Manic Depression and Creativity Hershman and Lieb present case
histories of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, the writer Charles
Dickens, the artist Vincent van Gogh and the scientist Isaac
Newton.
The coincidence of creativity and mood disorder does not only
occur in the arts. In his Moodswing Fieve devotes a separate chapter,
Moneymanagers, Wall Street Wizards and the Midas Touch49, to successful
businessmen and investors. Industrial psychologist Kets de Vries
describes the special abilities of the hypomanic manager.
The case of political or military leader is interesting. Goodwin and
Jamison devote a paragraph to the political and military leaders in
58
their textbook Manic-depressive Illness and Leadership’50. They touch on
political and military leaders such as Alexander the Great, Lord
Nelson and Winston Churchill, and also on religious leaders such as
Martin Luther. Nassir Ghaemi’s book A first Rate Madness diagnoses
great leaders like Ghandi, Churchill and Lincoln. Fieve likewise deals
in a chapter ‘Moods and Great Men’ 51 with Churchill, Theodore
Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
Psychiatrists follow Aristotle in that creativity gets the best
opportunity in mildly elated or hypomanic episodes. That’s when a
multitude of ideas, combined with heightened energy, can lead to a
strong creative urge that is reflected in objective achievements.
Increased self-confidence gives the hypomanic the courage to present
his novelties to the world. The authors of DSM-IV, Frances and
First, also see a connection between achievement and hypomania.
They note that during hypomanic periods achievements can suddenly
increase and projects and tasks that were long neglected can be
completed with great speed. A strongly heightened level of activity is
translated into increased productivity without leading to fatigue.52
A manic episode on the other hand, if not an outright
obstacle, is at least unfriendly to creativity, in spite of the way
it is experienced. The manic feels capable of anything, but
reality is otherwise. Delusions and hallucinations may yield
original images, but an innovative idea alone does not usually
survive to become part of our cultural heritage. Creativity
requires calmer waters. Furthermore, the manic is so
absorbed by a grand feeling of cosmic unity to be interested
in details. He hardly takes any pains to communicate with his
environment, because he already feels one with the world
around him. A manic episode is often a time of pseudo-
creativity: the manic experiences an almost divine ability to
create, but in actual fact he hardly produces anything.
A depressive episode however seems to be contrary to
creativity, both in the eyes of the depressed patient and his
environment. He experiences an overall withering of
59
capabilities. Obsessive doubt and lack of confidence curb the
creative process. In its place comes the equivalent of a
writer’s block. The words, ideas, solutions, or paint that
flowed so profusely during hypomania, are no longer
forthcoming. If anything is squeezed from the empty mind by
hard work and self-discipline it becomes the focus of
scorching self-criticism emanating from a negative self-
image.
Is depression then just a waste of time, a useless struggle,
pain for no reason? Not entirely. During a light depression
certain basic conditions of creativity are prepared. During this
period of negativity and demolition, rubble is cleared so that a
new building can be erected during a hypomanic episode.
Thus light depression has as special function in the creative
process.
Deep depression is another matter. For depressive
delusions and hallucinations the same holds as for those of
manic episodes. In exceptional cases images can emerge that
can be processed in quieter times. But in general, in the
creative process, deep depression can be done without.
Contemporary psychiatrists agree with Aristotle, that
extremes should be avoided, for the benefit of the person and
of his creativity. Mania can make the bipolar’s creative
capabilities run riot, depression can paralyze them, and, in the
case of suicide, even damage them forever. It is not in the
extremes of mood swing but in the slight deviation in both
directions that the source of creativity can be found.
60
61
LITERATURE
Mayhew, R. and Mirhady D.C. Aristotle, Problems, Volume II: Books 20-
38, edited and translated edited and translated by Loeb Classical
library, Harvard University Press, 2011
62
Burton, Robert, The Anatomy of Melancholy, edited and introduced by
Holbrook Jackson, W.H. Gass, New York Review Books, 2001
Dally, P. Virginia Woolf, Robson Books London 1999
Eijk, Ph.J., Medicine and Philosophy in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge
University Press, 2005
Euripides, The Heracles of Euripides (Focus Classical Library) translator
M. R. Halleran 1988
Euripides, Madness of Hercules, Children of Hercules, translator A.S. Way,
Loeb Classical Library, William Heineman ltd, London, 1971
Fieve, R.R. Moodswing, Doubleday Dell publishing 1989
Gaemi, N. A first-rate madness, Penguin Press, 2012
Gartner ,J.D. The Hypomanic edge, Simon & Schuster, 2005
Goodwin, F.K. and K.R. Jamison, Manic Depressive Illness, Oxford 1990
Goodwin, F.K. and K.R. Jamison, Manic Depressive Illness, Bipolar Disorder
and Recurrent Depression, Oxford 2007
Homer, The Odyssey, transl. R. Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1997
Homer, The Iliad, transl. R. Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1992
Jamison, K.R., Touched with Fire, Manic-depressive Illness and the Artistic
Temperament, Simon & Schuster, New York,1993
Northwood, H.M., The Melancholic Mean: the Aristolean Problemata
XXX.1, Paideaia online project, proceeding of the 1998 World
Congress of Philosophy, Summer 1999, hmnorthw@naz.edu
Ovid III: Metamorphoses, Books I-VIII , Loeb Classical Library,
translator F.J.Miller
Porter, R. Madness, a Brief History, Oxford University Press, 2002
Seneca, Hercules Furens, in Seneca, VIII, Tragedies I, translator F.J.Miller,
Heinemann, London 1917/68
Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, in Seneca, IX, Tragedies II, translator F.J.Miller,
Heinemann, Londen 1917/68
Plato, Faidros, vert. H. Warren, M. Molengraaf, Bert Bakker,
Amsterdam,1998
Solomon, A., The Noonday Demon, an atlas of depression, Simon &
Schuster, New York, 2001
Sophocles, Lloyd- Jones, ed. Aias, Electra, Oedipus Tyrannus Lloyd-
Jones, ed. Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press 1997
63
1
That Aristotle was the author of this influential essay On Melancholy was
taken for granted until recently. Some argue that it should be attributed not
to Aristotle himself, but to his pupil Theophrastus.1 Klibansky1 argues that
if not actually from Aristotle, it is very Aristotelian in style and content.
Radden wisely puts the authorship down to ‘Aristotle (or his follower)’1.
After a thorough comparison of the problemata and other
acknowledged works of Aristotle on the same subject Philip van Eijk,
expert on Greek medicine, concludes that the text on melancholy is close
enough to Aristotelian thought for Aristotle to be named as the author on
the cover of his Dutch translation. (Aristoteles , Over Melancholie, 2001) A
comment I would like to add to this discussion is, that if Thepophrastos
wás responsible for the idea that all eminent philosophers are melancholics,
the question arises why he did not add his master to the names of Socrates
and Plato. That Aristotle himself would leave out his own name when
discussing eminent melancholic seems more obvious. In the end, no single
conclusion on the authorship of the famous text on melancholy is definite.
That Aristotle was taken to be the author by eminent men throughout the
ages, as diverse as Seneca and Ficino, is, on the other hand, beyond doubt.
Such debates can be put into perspective by noting that authorship in
Aristotle’s days was not such a black and white issue as it is in our day of
tightly regulated copyright and intellectual property. In Rembrandts day,
filling in the details of their master’s work was normal procedure. So in
Aristotle’s time’, taking down and expanding upon the master’s lectures,
inheriting his manuscripts upon his death, and revising and editing before
(posthumous) publication, was rule rather than exception. Thus the
Nichomachean Ethics, named after his bastard son Nichomachos, who
possibly did some editing, leads no-one to doubt the authorship of
Aristotle.
So why all the fuss about that tiny work ‘On melancholy’? Perhaps it is not so
much the authorship as such, as the hot character of the question itself
which is at stake. For how can a moody, a melancholy, a sick man be a
genius? It is to the answer to this intriguing question that my book is
dedicated. Whenever this tiny booklet- known to experts as Problemata
XXX.1, to lay persons as ‘On Melancholy’, is mentioned, critical readers
are requested to insert ‘or inspired by him’ after the word ‘Aristotle’.
2 ‘Through what’ is my translation of - the questioning word with
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am I writing this book? I prefer the literal translation, asking for the cause
in the empirical sense, in colloquial English ‘how come’?
Eg. Why,/through what, is it that the tongue of those who are drunk stumbles
? The discourse following the question gives the answer. This question
implies that there is something unusual here, something that needs
explaining. That outstanding persons turn out to be mentally ill, or at least
unstable, came and still comes as something of a shock.
3In ancient Greece, epilepsy was considered as caused by the gods. It was
the tyrants and monsters threatening the Greek people, killed his wife and
children in a manic fury.
5 Lysander was the Spartan General who defeated the Athenians. Plutarch
own sword.
7 The mythical hero Bellophoron, slayer of monsters including the
Aristotle
11 Socrates, (470- 399 BC), the master of Plato, who was forced by the
65
13 Greek god of wine
14 Greek goddess of love, Latin name Venus
15 Archelaus I was a king of Macedon from 413 to 399 BC. He was a
capable and beneficent ruler, known for the sweeping changes he made in
state administration, the military, and commerce; and for his ruthless cruelty
16 This phrase is usually translated as ‘as all melancholic people are
in modern usage.
30 In Greek the definitive article hoi often accompanies a noun without
extra meaning, and in other cases a noun without a definitive article can be
translated with the definitive article ‘the’. The addition of a definite article
to an abstract noun is common in Greek.
66
31 The table Aristotle refers to in Nicomachean Ethics has been lost. On the
basis of the text I have made a diagram adapted to the peculiarities of
modern usage. This is partly based on the diagram in the Eudemian Ethics,
that Pannier and Verhaeghe included in their translation of Aristotle’s Ethica
Nicomachea, p. 349. The table in English needs further refinement and
checking against the English translation of Eudemian Ethics.
32 Poetics 6, VI 27-8, translated by Stephen Halliwell
33 The Greeks saw a close connection between epilepsy and melancholy
34 those wild women who honour the wine god Bacchus, and indulge in
van de ‘apatheia’
36 siue Aristoteli, "nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit".
Non potest grande aliquid et super ceteros loqui nisi mota mens. Cum
uulgaria et solita contempsit instinctuque sacro surrexit excelsior, tunc
demum aliquid cecinit grandius ore mortali. Non potest sublime quicquam
et in arduo positum contingere, quamdiu apud se est: desciscat oportet a
solito et efferatur et mordeat frenos et rectorem rapiat suum, eoque ferat
quo per se timuisset escendere
37 Porter, R. Madness : A Brief History
38 Aretæus, the Cappadocian, on the causes and symptoms of chronic
Stuttgart, 1945,
42 Kraepelin, E. Psychiatrie, Leipzig 1883-1913. This was a gradual evolution.
67
44 American Psychiatric Association, DSM III-V, Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders
45 Andreasen, p. 237-38, and Andreasen, ‘Creativity and Mental Illness:
Richards,
48 H.S. Akiskal and D. Akiskal, ‘Reassessing the Prevalence of Bipolar
Bible 2.2
68