"Melancholia pushes against the easy "either/or" of the status quo. It
thrives in unexplored middle ground between oppositions, in the
"both/and." It fosters fresh insights into relationships between
oppositions, especially that great polarity life and death. It
encourages new ways of conceiving and naming the mysterious connections
between antinomies. It returns us to innocence, to irony, that ability,
temporary, to play in potential without being constrained to the actual.
Such respites from causality refresh our relationship to the world,
grant us beautiful vistas, energize our hearts and our minds.
Indeed,
the world is much of the time boring, controlled as it is by staid
habits. It seems overly familiar, tired, repetitious. Then along comes
what Keats calls the melancholy fit, and suddenly the planet again turns
interesting. The veil of familiarity falls away. There before us flare
bracing possibilities. We are called to forge untested links to our
environments. We are summoned to be creative.
Given these virtues of melancholia, why are thousands of psychiatrists
and psychologists attempting to "cure" depression as if it were a
terrible disease? Obviously, those suffering severe depression, suicidal
and bordering on psychosis, require serious medications. But what of
those millions of people who possess mild to moderate depression? Should
these potential visionaries also be asked to eradicate their
melancholia with the help of a pill? Should these possible innovators
relinquish what might well be their greatest muse, their demons giving
birth to angels?"
