Suicide is melancholy.

In 1394, Jean Masstoier threw himself down a well. Authorities determined that he suffered from “melancholy of the head.” By that time an understanding of “melancholia” was somewhat commonplace. In 1265, Brunetto Latini, among others, drew from Greek medicine and philosophy to diagnose affliction as “an excess of black bile that clouded the brain and prompted somber thoughts.”

Minois observes that melancholia was in fact progress. Up until that time a finding of despair entailed theological suppositions such as sin and demon possession. By contrast, melancholia began to move diagnosis into the scientific realm of the day. Minois cautions that the distinction was not absolute, far from it. For instance, Timothy Bright’s influential Treatise of Melancholie (1598) maintains that the affliction is “both divine vengeance and diabolical temptation.”

Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) took a dramatic step toward science in place of theology. Burton establishes an axial analysis of melancholy. One axis is the innate, for individuals are melancholic by greater or lesser degrees according to their natures. One axis is environment, event, and action. Thus, melancholy cannot be exorcised, as it were, but it can be managed or even harnessed in meaningful activities and contributions. To wit, Burton reveals: “I write of Melancholy, by being busie to avoid melancholy.”

Minois observes that Burton’s contribution was scientific, in establishing a lasting and prevailing theory of the subject; it was therapeutic, indicating that melancholy was treatable; and it was humanitarian, offering explanations that might elicit compassion rather than condemnation.

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Minois, History.