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A review by betsyrisen
Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk
5.0
“In Lincoln’s middle years, a loud insistence on his own woe evolved into a quiet, disciplined yearning. He yoked his feelings to a style of severe self-control, articulating a melancholy that was, more than anything, philosophical. He saw the world as a sad, difficult place from which he expected considerable suffering.”
“A person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with both an awful burden and what Byron called “a fearful gift.” The burden was a sadness and despair that could tip into a state of disease. But the gift was a capacity for depth, wisdom—even genius.
“I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”
I've always been fascinated by what little I have known about Lincoln's personality/depression. I was a fully formed human being before I understand the real depth of his mental health issues and the effect they had on him. I have had this book on my list forever, and it did not disappoint. Not only a wonderful, accessible history of Lincoln's life itself and how his mental health led his life choices, but a comprehensive history of the way depression is viewed in this country (as a broader subject as well as in relation to its well known figures). It was a lot, and it was sad, and I'll be processing all of it for awhile. But I would certainly recommend.
“A person with a melancholy temperament had been fated with both an awful burden and what Byron called “a fearful gift.” The burden was a sadness and despair that could tip into a state of disease. But the gift was a capacity for depth, wisdom—even genius.
“I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth. Whether I shall ever be better I can not tell; I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible; I must die or be better, it appears to me.”
I've always been fascinated by what little I have known about Lincoln's personality/depression. I was a fully formed human being before I understand the real depth of his mental health issues and the effect they had on him. I have had this book on my list forever, and it did not disappoint. Not only a wonderful, accessible history of Lincoln's life itself and how his mental health led his life choices, but a comprehensive history of the way depression is viewed in this country (as a broader subject as well as in relation to its well known figures). It was a lot, and it was sad, and I'll be processing all of it for awhile. But I would certainly recommend.