The Anatomy of Melancholy

Subsection 2 Help from friends through counsel and comfort gentle and harsh methods ingenious devices reassurance changes in the way of life and removal of troubling objects and so forth

When the patient cannot by himself resist or overcome these passions that eat away at the heart, his friends or physician must be ready to supply what he lacks. “It will be the part of their humanity and wisdom”—as Cicero directs in a similar case—“to attend to any error, or by their diligence correct anything unforeseen.” They must all work together. As Hippocrates says, “It is not enough for the physician to have done his duty unless the patient and those attending him also do theirs,” and so forth.

First, they must take special care that a melancholy, discontented person, whatever the kind of melancholy, is never left alone or idle. As physicians prescribe medicine “under supervision,” so let such patients have company rather than be left to themselves, lest their illness thereby grow worse: “Patients of this kind should not be alone, or among strangers, or among people they do not love or do not care about,” as Rodrigo da Fonseca prescribes in volume 1, consultation 35.

“We are accustomed to watch over those who mourn,” says Seneca, “lest they make harmful use of solitude.” We watch a sorrowful person lest he misuse his isolation, and we should do the same for a melancholy man. Give him some business, exercise, or recreation to divert his thoughts and keep his attention elsewhere. His imagination is so restless, active, and swift that, unless it is continually occupied, it will work upon itself, sink into melancholy, and instantly be swept away by some fear, jealousy, discontent, suspicion, or empty notion.

If his weakness prevents him from recognizing what is wrong, correcting it, or finding reassurance, they must turn his mind elsewhere through counsel, comfort, or persuasion, by gentle or harsh means, by some ingenious device or an opposing argument. They must remove any objects, causes, company, or circumstances that distress him, accommodate his wishes, please and distract him, and, if possible, give him security and reassurance by changing his way of life. If he conceals his troubles and refuses to acknowledge them, they must discover what distresses him by observing his expression, gestures, movements, and imagination, and then apply remedies. Many are cured at once when their minds are put at ease.

Alexander mentions a woman who, because her husband had long been away travelling, was exceedingly irritable and melancholy. But when she heard that he had returned, contrary to all expectation, the first sight of him freed her from every fear and restored her former health without any other medicine.

Trincavelli, in book 1, consultation 12, tells a similar story of a Venetian who was deeply afflicted with melancholy and ready to die of grief: when he heard that his wife had given birth to a son, he immediately recovered. As Alexander concludes, if our disordered imaginings have not become deeply rooted, they may be cured by this method, especially when they arise from such a cause.