“Man could not live if he were entirely impervious to sadness. Many sorrows can be endured only by being embraced, and the pleasure taken in them naturally has a somewhat melancholy character. So, melancholy is morbid only when it occupies too much place in life; but it is equally morbid for it to be wholly excluded from life.“
~Emile Durkheim
In ancient Greek medicine, doctors believed that every disease was caused by an imbalance in one of four main bodily fluids. An excess of black bile was said to be the cause of a depressed disposition. Taken from the Greek root words melas, meaning “black,” and kholé, meaning “bile,” this condition was termed melancholia.
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