HON H 213 Madness and Melancholy

Gareth Evans garevans@indiana.edu

The aim of a liberal education is to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarize the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to reorient themselves (Harvard Faculty Committee Report). Course Description Madness and Melancholy rests on the assumption that definitions of madness and melancholy are, in Roy Porters words, not fixed points but culture-relative. While well read some contemporary discussions of how depression and other mental disorders are treated and defined, the bulk of our reading will consist of literary, medical, and philosophical accounts of madness and melancholy written from the classical period to the early seventeenth-century. Our reading will be comparative and we will seek to understand each account of madness and/or melancholy in the context in which it was written. Instead of agreement, we will find, in every period, debate and disagreement about how madness and melancholy should be defined and treated. While depression and madness are now typically medicalized and pathologized, in other periods, writers, scientists included, took an approach to melancholy and madness that was as much, or more, religious, ethical, or philosophical as it was medical. We will see madness and melancholy sometimes judged positively rather than negatively. We will read writers defining madness and melancholy in relation to the bodily humors, to gender, genius, the gods or God, love, parents, power, the planets, reason, and sin. More often than not, these same writers are more concerned with what it means to be good than they are concerned with what it means to be well. Frequently, the writers we read are critical of the societies in which they live and of most of the people in those societies, including those who are wealthy and have power. The class, then, has less to say about psychology or medicine than it does about religion, moral philosophy, and the social and political implications of madness and melancholy. INTENSIVE WRITING Because H 213 is an Intensive Writing class, you must write at least 5,000 words (roughly 20 typed pages), not counting revisions, essay examinations, and informal writing (e.g., journals or brief response statements). You will receive periodic evaluations of your writing, and you will redraft one of your first two essays in light of my comments. My comments will address the subject matter of your papers and the analysis and presentation of that subject matter. You will receive two grades, one for your mastery of the course, which includes the quality of your writing, and another that indicates whether you have satisfied (S) or not satisfied (N) the Intensive Writing component of the class. For more details on the essays you will be required to write, see Writing Requirements and Grades below. INFORMAL WRITING & INFORMATION LITERACY On a number of occasions during the semester, you will be asked to prepare notes that focus on particular words or images or kinds of being; write summaries or summaries and evaluations of your own argument or of an argument made by another; write comments or ask questions about claims made by an author you have read; perform library research that enables you to find and use reliable academic sources of information; write a complete draft of an essay that you will later revise and submit; revise and extend an essay that you have already once submitted and graded. I ask you to perform such tasks not because I am trying to keep you busy, but because such tasks

are among the building blocks of every academic essay that is ever written. The more command you have over each task, the better the reader, researcher, and writer you are likely to be. NOTE Be aware that every semester some students find some of the work we read difficult to comprehend and interpret. You should also be aware that I place a great deal of emphasis on the quality of student writing. While it is perfectly possible to get an A in the class, you are going to have to earn it. READING Euripides, Medea <http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/euripides/medea.htm>. Euripides, Bacchae <http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/euripides/euripides.htm>. Plato, Phaedrus (Hackett). Shakespeare, Hamlet (Arden). Shakespeare, King Lear (Arden). Excerpts on E-Reserve or on the web from work by the following writers: essays by and excerpts from: [Pseudo] Aristotle, Timothy Bright, Robert Burton, Erasmus, Marsilio Ficino, Galen, Hildegard of Bingen, Hippocrates, Ruth Padel, [Pseudo] Hippocrates, and Seneca; the following selection of work that illustrates issues central to the contemporary debate about the diagnosis and treatment of depression: entries from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), The bright side of being blue: Depression as an adaptation for analyzing complex problems by Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., comments on that essay by Ed Coyne and Jerry Hagen, essays by Jonah Lehrer and Louis Menand, and a debate between Christopher Lane and Nassir Ghaemi about, among other topics, the present and the future of DSM IV. Youll find links to online material under the Resources tab at Oncourse. Youll find the material on E-Reserve at: http://ereserves.indiana.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=6751 The books for the course are available at Boxcar Books, 408 E. 6th Street. Schedule 1/10 1/12 Introduction. Assignment: Post at Oncourse no more than two sentences that explain your current understanding of the causes and consequences of depression. Padel, Whom Gods Destroy (E). Watters, The Americanization of Mental Illness. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?pagewanted=all>. Assignment: Bring to class a typed summary of the major claims made by Padel and Watters. NO CLASS. MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY. Euripides, Medea. Assignment: Prepare a typed list of the occasions on which the gods, a particular god, or particular gods are referred to in Medea. What do the references to the gods suggest about the role they play in shaping the behavior of Medea and Jason? Euripides, Bacchae. Plato, Phaedrus. Nehamas & Woodruff, Introduction.

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Assignment: Write a one-series response to five questions about Phaedrus posted at Oncourse. Write three or four sentences that explain, or note difficulties you may have understanding, the connections Socrates makes between the gods, the human soul, madness, love, and Socrates' conception of a good life. Plato, Phaedrus. Hippocrates, The Sacred Disease; The Nature of Man (E) Assignment: As you're reading "The Nature of Man," notice how Hippocrates suggests the human body and the universe are, in the words of Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, derived from the same primary elements. Show how microcosm human bodymatches macrocosmthe universe. The number four is central to Hippocrates theory. There are four humors. What else does Hippocrates divide into groups of four? How does he link each member of each group to each humor? Type up a list and bring it with you to class. Galen, The Affections and Errors of the Soul; The Souls Dependence on the Body (E) Assignment: Read, grade and discuss Sample Essays. WRITING WORKSHOP. Assignment: Bring to class copies of a draft of the essay due on 2/21. Print and read in advance the handout on the Revision Process posted at Oncourse. [Pseudo] Hippocrates, Pseudepigraphic Writings (E) Assignment: Write and bring to class a one-page response to the following questions: What kind of life does Pseudo-Hippocrates want you to live? What are the differences between his description of the ideal life and your description of the ideal life? Compare the individual and community costs and benefits of his ideal life and yours. Provide examples drawn from Pseudo-Hippocrates work. [Pseudo] Aristotle, Problem XXX (E); Ficino Three Books on Life (E) Assignment: At Oncourse, briefly explain, or note the difficulties you have understanding: (1) Ficinos explanation of the three causes of melancholy, and (2) the manner in which Ficino distinguishes the beneficial form of melancholy from melancholy in its negative form. ESSAY 1 DUE. Hildegard of Bingen, Holistic Healing (E). Assignment: Write and bring to class one typed page about how Hildegard of Bingen combines Christianity and humoralism. What are the consequences of that combination? Provide examples drawn from Bingens work. DSM IV, Mood Disorders. Louis Menand, Head Case. <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2010/03/01/100301crat_atlarge_men and>. DSM IV, Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder). Christopher Lane. American Psychiatry is Facing Civil War Over its Diagnostic Manual. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/200912/americanpsychiatry-is-facing-civil-war-over-its-diagnostic-manual>. Author Interviews: Christopher Lane. <http://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/2008/01/christopher-lane.html>. Nassir Ghaemi. The Power of Words: The Disorder of Disorder. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mood-swings/201007/the-power-wordsthe-disorder-disorder>. Christopher Lane. The More Things Change . . . The Uphill Struggle to Revise and Reform the DSM. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201007/themore-things-change-the-uphill-struggle-revise-and-reform-the-dsm>.

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Nassir Ghaemi. DSM and disease: Telling the whole truth. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mood-swings/201007/dsm-and-diseasetelling-the-whole-truth>. Christopher Lane. DSM and Disease: Dr. Ghaemis Partial Answer. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/side-effects/201007/dsm-and-disease-drghaemis-partial-answer>. Assignment: Write a one page explanation of why you accept the argument about either DSM-IV or depression made by one or more of the following: DSM-IV, Ghaemi, Lane, Menand. Andrews & Thomson, The Bright Side of Being Blue. Download at <http://sites.google.com/site/paulwandrewsphd/>. Jonah Lehrer, Jerry Coyne, and Ed Hagen on Andrews & Thomson. Links at: <http://sites.google.com/site/paulwandrewsphd/>. The links to the pages are also posted at Oncourse. Assignment: Post at Oncourse a two or three sentence description of your current understanding of the causes and consequences of depression. Think about how and why your understanding of depression has or has not changed since the beginning of the course. SPRING BREAK CLASS MEETS AT WELLS LIBRARY. CLASS MEETS AT LILLY LIBRARY. Assignment: ESSAY 2 DUE. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy. (E) Assignment: Write and bring to class a one-page response that explains, or outlines your difficulty understanding, how Burton defines melancholy. How does Burtons definition of melancholy differ from DSM-IVs ways of viewing depression? Provide examples drawn from Burtons work. Seneca, On Anger (E); DSM-IV, Antisocial Personality Disorder; Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Assignment: LIBRARY EXERCISE DUE. Shakespeare, Hamlet. Excerpt from Bright, Treatise on Melancholy (E). Topics of Discussion: Hamlet and melancholy; Hamlet and madness; Hamlet and anger. Assignment: Perform separate searches for the words mad and madness in the edition of Hamlet that appears online at Shakespeare Collection <http://www.libraries.iub.edu/scripts/countResources.php?resourceId=1954621>. Consider the following questions: What conclusion do you reach about the meaning and significance of the words mad and madness in Hamlet? Which of the classical and Renaissance writers you have read have implicitly or explicitly shaped Shakespeares use of the words mad and madness? Shakespeare, Hamlet. Excerpt from Erasmus, Praise of Folly (E). Topic of Discussion: Hamlet and folly. Assignment: Bring with you to class a typed or written list of the qualities possessed by a person Erasmus would consider a good fool. Do any of the characters in the play possess such qualities? Shakespeare, King Lear. Topic of Discussion: Lear and folly. Assignment: Write and bring to class a one-page response that examines the extent to which Marvin Rosenberg is correct to suggest that in King Lear, [f]ool represents the kind of folly Erasmus celebrated, that in its non-reason sees beyond itself to deeper realities (The Masks of King Lear 105). To what extent are characters other

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than the fool in King Lear shaped by the notions of folly Erasmus explores in Praise of Folly? Provide examples drawn from the play. Shakespeare, King Lear. Topic of Discussion: Lear and anger. Assignment: REVISED ESSAY DUE. Assignment: Individual 5 minute presentations of thesis and argument of final essay. Please provide a 1 page abstract for every member of the class. Assignment: Individual 5 minute presentations of thesis and argument of final essay. Please provide a 1 page abstract for every member of the class. Assignment: Individual 5 minute presentations of thesis and argument of final essay. Please provide a 1 page abstract for every member of the class. Evaluations Essay 3 due.

Note: The schedule and syllabus are subject to change. Writing Requirements and Grades Essays 1 and 2 must be a minimum of 6-8 typed, double-spaced pages in length, while your revised essay and essay 3 must both be a minimum of 8-10 typed, double-spaced pages in length. The revised essay and the third essay you submit must include use of and reference to secondary, critical sources. A hard copy of each of the essays must be submitted to me on paper. Note: Essays that do not meet the page requirement will be returned unread and given an F. Be warned that changing font size, line spacing, and the size of margins are not only doomed to failure, but will insure you get an F for the essay. You will not be allowed to rewrite an essay that does not meet the page requirement for the assignment. A graded exercise designed to display your ability to find and use information in IUCAT, WorldCat, Online Full-Text Journals, and a variety of subject specific online databases. 10% of the final grade. 10% of your grade will depend on class participation. Students who rarely or never participate in class discussion receive a C for class participation. A C for class participation typically means a student who averages B on his or her essays gets a B- for the class. An A for class participation and on the library exercise typically means a student who averages B on his or her essays gets a B+ for the class. On some days you do not have an essay due, you will write a typewritten response to questions posted at Oncourse. The responses you write and ask count towards class participation. Your final grade for the class will drop by 1/3 of a grade every time you do not write a response. 5% of your grade will depend on the summary of your final essay that you present towards the end of the semester. The summary should be one single-spaced page long. Students in the class will determine the grade of the summaries if they grade the summaries in the same way as they graded the sample essays they read and graded earlier in the semester. To translate, if you give an A to a summary that should get a C, I will give that summary a C. You must fulfill all of the writing requirements to receive a passing grade in the class. Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3 Revised essay 15% 15% 20% 25%

Library research exercise Class Participation Essay abstract

10% 10% 5%

All essays must be exercises in criticism and analysis. Essays will be graded on form as well as content. I place a great deal of emphasis on writing skills and only those students with exceptional writing skills can expect to receive an A in this class.