Melancholia

Madness is an idea that has been widely explored and theorized throughout the ages, particularly within Shakespearean literature and other works along those lines. It is nearly impossible to establish a working definition of madness itself, because there are so many different forms of madness shown throughout time, as well as different contexts. It breaks down to subjectivity, along with time and place, and situational circumstances. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart,” a perhaps unusual form…

causes mood disorders, a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. With proper diagnose and treatment depression can be controlled however, it has not always been easy to diagnose or receive treatment. Depression was initially called Melancholia and was first found in the Mesopotamian texts in the second millennium B.C. However, at this time it was not considered a medical issue. On the other hand the early Mesopotamian civilization believed that the person was possessed by the devil…

Major Depressive Disorder Major depressive disorder is a mood disorder that is caused by extreme and repetitious feelings of desperation, worthlessness, and discouragement. Most of these feelings are known to cause impaired emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and physical functioning or performance. (NEED CITATION) Major or clinical depression is commonly diagnosed with those who have the symptoms every day for at least two weeks. DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) is a common tool…

between personality disorders and the brain (Science Museum of London, 2013). During the latter part of the Age of Enlightenment, depression made a broad appearance and took doctors by surprise. Before the Age of Enlightenment, depression was called “melancholia” and was considered to be a demonic possession. Thought to be the work of the devil, many sufferers with this condition relied solely on religion and the priest to “pray the demons away,” but for others they were put through cruel and…

The epidemics of the eighteenth century like the digestive complaints, fevers, melancholia, tremors, nervous tics, and stupidity were all believed to be caused by the pollution and deterioration of society (Braun). The poor conditions of the city were believed to be the cause of every sickness and disease. The cities of Australia were…

If poets use language as musicians use musical instruments, Swift’s works would be a soundtrack of unpleasant, dissonant noises. Jonathon Swift, the premier satirist in English literature, does not poeticize the human experience with romance and beauty. He litters his poems, Description of a City Shower and The Lady’s Dressing Room, with filthy imagery and grotesque satire. The unconventionality of Swift’s poetry may be explained using his Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift. He begins this poem on…

The man and the band that no knows anything about. If they do know something they are never quite sure if it’s true. Nick Blinko is a British outsider artist, schizophrenic, and lead singer and guitar player in the experimental Anarcho-Punk band Rudimentary Peni. Yes that’s “Peni” as in “Penis” Little is known about Rudimentary Peni and even less is known about Blinko. What there is to know is shrouded in mystery and all seems to come from a very small pool of original sources. Pooled here is…

(Shapiro 251). While both camp and kinging exhibit a “significant source of identity change” kinging seems to display this more significantly (Shapiro 253). Camp has a deep root in humor within performativity; camp has a “complex flipside involving melancholia for the subject that the performer parodies but can never ‘be’” (Maltz 283). Camp is often extenuating the idea of gender as a performance by males embodying femininity. Differently, kinging is not simply about “the incongruous…

According to the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder foundation,(Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,2013).“OCD is a medical brain disorder that causes problems in information processing.” They compare OCD to a brain spasm; when your brain freezes on a certain thought and is unable to move forward. The brain is incapable of dealing with any thoughts of worry or doubt. This may cause many side effects that can clearly perceive a person as OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder is a disease that is well known of,…

called clinical depression, this can impact how we behave as well as our mood and often times affects various aspects of our lives. Depression has been around for many years now, since the B.C. era, when it was first discovered it was known as “melancholia.” “At this time, all mental illnesses were attributed to demonic possession, and were attended to by priests” (Nemade, Reiss, Dombeck). Babylonian, Chinese, and Egyptian used exorcism techniques such as beatings and starvations, to take the…