Lincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness
Author: Joshua Wolf Shenk
Drawing on seven years of his own research and the work of other esteemed Lincoln scholars, Shenk reveals how the sixteenth president harnessed his depression to fuel his astonishing success. Lincoln found the solace and tactics he needed to deal with the nation's worst crisis in the "coping strategies" he had developed over a lifetime of persevering through depressive episodes and personal tragedies.
With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with depression, Shenk crafts a nuanced, revelatory account of Lincoln and his legacy. Based on careful, intrepid research, Lincoln's Melancholy unveils a wholly new perspective on how our greatest president brought America through its greatest turmoil.
Shenk relates Lincoln's symptoms, including mood swings and at least two major breakdowns, and offers compelling evidence of the evolution of his disease, from "major depression" in his twenties and thirties to "chronic depression" later on. Shenk reveals the treatments Lincoln endured and his efforts to come to terms with his melancholy, including a poem he published on suicide and his unpublished writings on the value of personal--and national--suffering. By consciously shifting his goal away from personal contentment (which he realized he could not attain) and toward universal justice, Lincoln gained the strength and insight that he, and America, required to transcend profound darkness.
Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and author of An Unquiet Mind - Kay Redfield Jamison
"A profoundly human and psychologically important examination of the melancholy that so pervaded Lincoln's life. His suffering, and transformation of that suffering into an astonishing grace and strength, are persuasively and beautifully described in this remarkable book."
Newsweek Magazine - Jonathan Alter
"Shenk brilliantly peels away the onion of myth and sentiment to reveal the compelling, tortured soul beneath. This book is full of lessons not just on Lincoln and mental health but on the strange alchemy of great leadership."
Booklist
"An estimable contribution to the Lincoln literature."
The Washington Post - William Lee Miller
Shenk does gain a dimension that not all Lincoln books achieve: Looking at his subject's darkness also means approaching his depth. Shenk deals well with the recently discovered Lincoln poem on suicide…with Lincoln's alleged homosexuality; and with Lincoln's humor, a not-so-easy topic that the author tackles with the seriousness it deserves. Lincoln's Melancholy poignantly captures the subtle last phase of the president's life.
Publishers Weekly
Abe the Emancipator, argues Washington Monthly contributor Shenk, struggled with persistent clinical depression. The first major bout came in his 20s, and the disease dogged him for the rest of his life. That Lincoln suffered from "melancholy" isn't new. Shenk's innovation is in saying, first, that this knowledge can be illuminated by today's understanding of depression and, second, that our understanding of depression can be illuminated by the knowledge that depression was actually a source of Lincoln's greatness. Lincoln's strategies for dealing with it are worth noting today: at least once, he took a popular pill known as the "blue mass"-essentially mercury-and also once purchased cocaine. Further, Lincoln's famed sense of humor, suggests Shenk, may have been compensatory, and he also took refuge in poetry. Unlike Americans today, Shenk notes, 19th-century voters and pundits were more forgiving of psychological and emotional complexity, and a certain prophetic pessimism, he notes, was appropriate to the era of the Civil War. Occasionally, Shenk chases down an odd rabbit trail-an opening meditation on whether Lincoln was gay, for example, is neither conclusive nor apposite. Still, this is sensitive history, with important implications for the present. (Sept. 20) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Lincoln's bouts with melancholy were well known in his day and became legendary after his death, but biographers, psychiatrists, and students of Lincoln have struggled to make sense of them. Was he mad, depressed, physically debilitated, or what? Over the years, historians have amplified or ignored Lincoln's mental state, but recent works of psychobiography and new medical findings on depression have opened the way for a fresh assessment. With uncommon common sense, a rare understanding of historical context, and a close reading of the primary sources, journalist Shenk persuasively argues that Lincoln indeed suffered from chronic depression. More important, he suggests that Lincoln's coping strategies not only helped him to live with his melancholy but prepared him for greatness. Lincoln's failures and his ability to live with countervailing tensions gave him the empathy, humility, and genius to win a terrible war and inspire others. While some readers might balk at Shenk's devotion to oral histories as the principal contemporary evidence on Lincoln's state of mind, they will find his discussions of Lincoln's private self and personal relationships revealing and instructive. Highly recommended for large public and university libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/05.]-Randall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
School Library Journal
Adult/High School-In 1835, Lincoln, a likable, gifted law student, was so depressed that his community, who accepted his mental state as a component of his brilliance, put him on a suicide watch. The reaction to his depressions by those who knew him, and by Lincoln himself, is a revelation of 19th-century thinking. In his day, melancholia was seen as a personality type that, along with disadvantages, had attributes such as deep self-reflection. Blessed with insight into his condition, Lincoln used it as a resource, providing self-therapy in an era when professional therapies were scant. The man also was blessed with a sense of humor and, above all, good friendships that alleviated major life traumas, including the loss of two children. This is not a full biography. Emphasis is placed on aspects of Lincoln's life that contributed to his mental burdens, such as his estrangement from his father. The value of this book is the author's ability to assess his subject's mental state based on eyewitness accounts and Lincoln's own words. Shenk assumes his readers have a grasp of the period's history, making the book challenging, but teens interested in Lincoln or psychology will find the content compelling.-Jo Ann Soriano, Lorton Library, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A significant contribution to the study of Lincoln and his battle with depression that will resonate with contemporary Americans. To some extent, Shenk (Unholy Ghost, not reviewed, etc.) exaggerates historians' longtime discounting of Lincoln's depression-after all, the President's careworn face is iconic. To his credit, however, he never resorts to thinly-sourced speculations or cliches about Oedipal triangles that have made psychobiography a four-letter word among mainstream historians. This account illuminates a troubled soul who persevered in spite of depression. Two nervous breakdowns in Lincoln's mid-20s and early 30s led him not only to fear for his sanity but even contemplate suicide. "Lincoln said that he could kill himself, that he was not afraid to die," the author writes. "Yet, he said, he had an 'irrepressible desire' to accomplish something while he lived." That "something" was helping end slavery in the United States. It was "a temperamental inclination to see and prepare for the worst," according to Shenk, that allowed Lincoln to recognize slavery as the cancer devouring the Union. Perseverance and forbearance created a tough-minded yet compassionate leader who understood his and the nation's imperfections without accepting their permanence. Offering a plausible explanation for the evolution of Lincoln's depression from episodic to chronic, Shenk shows how personal conflicts (the death of Lincoln's mother, for example) interacted with professional disappointments (failed bids to become a state legislator and congressman) to forge a politician who admitted to being "the most miserable man living" even as he reached for greatness. An inspirational tale of how suffering breda visionary of hard-won wisdom.
What People Are Saying
Harold Holzer
"Original, important... Certain to provoke discussion and appreciation alike, and add a crucial new layer to the Lincoln story."
—co-chairman, U.S. Lincoln Bicentennial Commission
Rosalynn Carter
"Through careful research and his personal understanding of mental illness, Shenk takes us into the inner-world of a revered leader who profoundly impacted American history while managing his own depression. Lincoln's Melancholy cuts through long held misconceptions about an illness that affects so many."
—former U.S. First Lady and Chairperson, The Carter Center Mental Health Task Force
Walter Isaacson
"Lincoln not only coped with his depression, he harnessed it. Explaining how is critical to understanding both him and human greatness. Shenk does so masterfully and memorably."
—author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life and president and C.E.O of the Aspen Institute
Mike Wallace
"Lincoln's Melancholy is an extraordinary story, for the depth of its scholarship and the lure of its style. Today's depressive gets substantial help from medications that were unavailable to Lincoln. It was an incredible mountain he had to climb, as this book so vividly shows, and it's inspiring to see the heights he was able to reach."
—CBS News
Jerome Groopman
"Convincingly and with great artistry, Shenk reveals how Lincoln's struggle was transmuted into noble actions that changed the course of our country. This story of surmounting adversity will inspire not only historians but all those who seek ways to prevail over personal suffering."
—MD, author of Anatomy of Hope, New Yorker staff writer, Professor, Harvard Medical School
Nassir Ghaemi
"This book sets the standard for future works of biography with a psychological center of gravity. Far better than traditional psychobiography, this is scholarly history with thoughtful psychological insights."
—director, Bipolar Disorder Research Program, Emory University, author of The Concepts of
Steven Fidel
"After reading Lincoln's Melancholy, you will never look at depression in the same way again. This is without doubt one of the most thought-provoking books of the season."
—Powell's Books
Table of Contents:
| Prelude | xiii | |
| Introduction | 1 | |
| Part 1 | ||
| 1 | The Community Said He Was Crazy | 11 |
| 2 | A Fearful Gift | 26 |
| 3 | I Am Now the Most Miserable Man Living | 43 |
| Part 2 | ||
| 4 | A Self-Made Man | 69 |
| 5 | A Misfortune, Not a Fault | 81 |
| 6 | The Reign of Reason | 97 |
| 7 | The Vents of My Moods and Gloom | 112 |
| Part 3 | ||
| 8 | Its Precise Shape and Color | 126 |
| 9 | The Fiery Trial Through Which We Pass | 159 |
| 10 | Comes Wisdom to Us | 191 |
| Epilogue | 211 | |
| Afterword: "What Everybody Knows" | 221 | |
| Notes | 244 | |
| Bibliography | 300 | |
| Acknowledgments | 323 | |
| Index | 328 |
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Author: Edward W Said
The noted critic and a Palestinian now teaching at Columbia University,examines the way in which the West observes the Arabs.
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