Melancholia

Melancholia

Melancholia (from Greek: µέλαινα χολή melaina chole "black bile", "blackness of the bile" also Latin lugere lugubriousness to mourn, Latin morosus moroseness of self-will or fastidious habit, and old English wist wistfulness of intent or saturnine) is a condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and sometimes hallucinations and delusions. Melancholia is a concept from ancient or pre-modern medicine. Melancholy was one of the four temperaments matching the four humours. Until the 19th century, "melancholia" was seen to have physical symptoms as well as mental, and melancholic conditions were classified as such by their perceived common cause - an excess of black bile. At times, all forms of mental illness were associated with the concept, with some deemed to be caused by a combination of excess black bile and a disorder of one of the other humors. Despite there being a variety of mental and physical symptoms to this condition, in the 20th century the term became attached almost exclusively to depression. As such, it is the predecessor of the mental health diagnosis of clinical depression, and the term is currently used as a subtype for major depression known as melancholic depression.

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