Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you. -- C.G. Jung

Depress Here

One of every five persons suffers from depression. This is disturbing news. We are shocked that 80% of the population can live in these times and not be seriously depressed? Panic, hysteria and delusional paranoia would also be understandable reactions. A healthy dose of melancholia seems mild by comparison.

Yet couchloads of psycho-chemists have vowed to defeat our demon depressive traits. A rainbow of pills come with an array of benefits. (Since taking Zoloft, one now-productive user reports her dreams are dark, vivid and moist.) Today's hyperinteractive multi-tasking continually updated culture has no room for depression, no time for sadness.

Without that depressive moment-- without that sadness in the heart and weight that you feel-- you can't be slow enough to hear and receive the beauty. -- James Hillman

Sad is from the old Anglo-Saxon sæd , meaning "sated," a feeling of fullness. Melancholy is one of the four temperaments, the four humours of human beings, along with sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric. Everyone has some of each. You can calculate who has how much of what by a simple inspection of your blood and bile. Some prefer, however, just to answer a few questions. We can't tell sanguine from sangria, but in either case, we are wary of the results.

Your answers show the presence of prominent depressive symptoms. It is advised to seek a psychiatric consultation.

Darkness attracts. That's it; that's our Ode to Melancholy. We aren't advocating the kind of chronic clinical bed-in-Bellevue depths-of-despair drowning-waters type of depression. But we do wonder about those who don't even look into the lake. (The people we know are all swimming over their heads, but maybe we're hanging out with the wrong people.)

So, upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat,
For there seemed but little chance of Casey's getting to the bat.

There is no joy in Mudville. How does Casey feel after striking out? All we know is that melancholy makes some damn fine copy. And, god knows, none of us want's to wake up pre-coffee to a sea of :-).

The dream takes us downward, and the mood that corresponds with this movement is the slowing, saddening, introspective feeling of depression. --James Hillman

   recreated by The Dreamers of Babble-On

DreamWave Scribe