Joshua Wolf Shenk
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Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
22 editions
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published
2005
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Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression
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7 editions
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published
2001
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Powers of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs
18 editions
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published
2014
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Slouching Towards Los Angeles: Living and Writing By Joan Didion's Light
by
9 editions
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published
2020
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In Lincoln's Hand: His Original Manuscripts with Commentary by Distinguished Americans
by
7 editions
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published
2009
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Dating - Philosophy for Everyone: Flirting With Big Ideas
by
5 editions
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published
2011
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River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative
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published
2012
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The Believer (133)
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The Believer issue 131
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Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
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“Lincoln's story confounds those who see depression as a collection of symptoms to be eliminated. But it resonates with those who see suffering as a potential catalyst of emotional growth. "What man actually needs," the psychiatrist Victor Frankl argued,"is not a tension-less state but rather the striving and struggling of a worthwhile goal." Many believe that psychological health comes with the relief of distress. But Frankl proposed that all people-- and particularly those under some emotional weight-- need a purpose that will both draw on their talents and transcend their lives. For Lincoln, this sense of purpose was indeed the key that unlocked the gates of a mental prison. This doesn't mean his suffering went away. In fact, as his life became richer and more satisfying, his melancholy exerted a stronger pull. He now responded to that pull by tying it to his newly defined sense of purpose. From a place of trouble, he looked for meaning. He looked at imperfection and sought redemption.”
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
“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.”
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
“When a depressed person does get out of bed, it’s usually not with a sudden insight that life is rich and valuable, but out of some creeping sense of duty or instinct for survival. If collapsing is sometimes vital, so is the brute force of will. To William James we owe the insight that, in the absence of real health, we sometimes must act as if we are healthy. Buoyed by such discipline and habit, we might achieve actual well-being.”
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
― Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
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