A User's Guide to Melancholy
Cambridge University Press, 2/25/2021
EAN 9781108838849, ISBN10: 1108838847
Hardcover, 268 pages, 22.2 x 14 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
A User's Guide to Melancholy takes Robert Burton's encyclopaedic masterpiece The Anatomy of Melancholy (first published in 1621) as a guide to one of the most perplexing, elusive, attractive, and afflicting diseases of the Renaissance. Burton's Anatomy is perhaps the largest, strangest, and most unwieldy self-help book ever written. Engaging with the rich cultural and literary framework of melancholy, this book traces its causes, symptoms, and cures through Burton's writing. Each chapter starts with a case study of melancholy - from the man who was afraid to urinate in case he drowned his town to the girl who purged a live eel - as a way into exploring the many facets of this mental affliction. A User's Guide to Melancholy presents in an accessible and illustrated format the colourful variety of Renaissance melancholy, and contributes to contemporary discussions about wellbeing by revealing the earlier history of mental health conditions.
Introduction
Causes
1. Sorrow and fear
2. Body and mind
3. The supernatural
Symptoms
4. Delusions
5. Love and sex
6. Despair
Cures
7. The non-naturals
8. Medicine and surgery
9. Lifting the spirits
Robert Burton, 'The Author's Abstract of Melancholy'
Conclusion
The Two Faces of Melancholy.