Mourning and melancholy are related to how a person responds to loss. Mourning is a healthy response that leads to healing, while melancholy is internalized grief that can lead to severe depression. Melancholia is a mental health disorder that can respond to psychotherapy and antidepressant medications.
The relationship between mourning and melancholy depends on whether a person experiencing a loss can overcome the grief and recover. Mourning and melancholy begin with feelings of denial when a person or an abstract ideal, such as freedom, dies. Sadness is considered a healthy response in the early stages of grief that contributes to the healing process. When grief is internalized, it could lead to melancholy and deep depression.
Theories about the relationship between mourning and melancholy stem from the work of Sigmund Freud in 1917. Freud wrote that mourning is a normal reaction to the loss of a love object, which is consciously known and identifiable. Melancholy develops when sadness is inappropriate to the situation and is internalized. The person suffering from melancholia identifies the lost object or person with himself on an unconscious level, leading to ego loss.
Grieving and melancholy differ in how a person responds to a loss. During the grieving process, normal grief eventually subsides as a person becomes emotionally detached from the lost person or object and replaces the sadness with other emotions. If this process does not evolve, severe depression, characterized by sadistic tendencies, could develop.
Melancholic patients might seek revenge against their lost loved one by tormenting themselves. The normal phase of mourning defined as anger turns inward and becomes a conflict between love and hate that attacks the ego, according to Freud’s theory. These patients may feel deeply despondent and lose all interest in outside activities.
They usually become depressed and lose the ability to love others or themselves. Patients with melancholia may be filled with self-hatred and low self-esteem when anger is displaced. These emotions could lead the person to stop eating and sleeping and react with dysfunctional behaviors. Such emotions could also lead to suicidal thoughts or attempts.
Mourning and melancholy are themes of various research projects over the years to test Freud’s theory. Neurological advances in medicine show changes in brain patterns in people who fail to grieve in an emotionally healthy way. Melancholia is considered a mental health disorder that can respond to psychotherapy and antidepressant medications.
Melancholia differs from other forms of depression commonly seen when people cry. It is defined as major depression that could cause manic-depressive episodes or psychosis. The patient sometimes becomes fixated on a particular topic or idea and feels intense guilt. Brooding typically appears worse in the early morning, especially if the person cannot sleep. He or she usually loses all interest in sex and other pleasurable activities.
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