Publisher's Synopsis
More than any other generation, Americans today believe in the transformative power of positive thinking. But who says we’re supposed to be happy? Where does it say that in the Bible or the Constitution? Scholar Eric G. Wilson argues that all thriving cultures need melancholia —it is the muse of great literature, painting, music, and innovation, as well as the force underlying original insights. Francisco Goya, Emily Dickinson, Marcel Proust, and Abraham Lincoln were all confirmed melancholics, so enough Prozac-ing of our brains. Let’s embrace our depressive sides as the wellspring of creativity. What most people take for contentment, Wilson argues, is living death, and what the majority takes for depression, is a vital force. In Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy, Wilson suggests it would be better to relish the blues that make humans become people.
