Aristotle on melancholy 151
For people constantly feel pleasure in their youth because they are growing; con-
versely, melancholics by nature constantly need to be curedK% -
"
L, for the ‘mixture’ of their bodies keeps them in a constant state of stim-
ulationK3 * !
% +
Land they are always subject
to intense desiresK " +C SD
L>
According to Aristotle the pain is driven out by pleasure, once it has gained
sufficient strength, and therefore these people are undisciplined and bad
(akolastoi kai phauloi) in the way they act.
This is again a context in which the influence of the body on people’s
moral behaviour is discussed (hence the remark about lack of discipline).
Aristotle speaks about people who even perceive the normal state as painful
due to their nature(dia ten phusin ̄ ), their physiological constitution.^43 Ap-
parently, melancholics serve as an example for this group: they constantly
require curesby nature, that is, in their normal state. They might be said to be
permanently ill,^44 for their bodies are permanently ‘bitten’ (daknomenon)as
a result of their ‘mixture’ (krasis). The wordkrasis, which plays an important
part in Greek medicine and physiology,^45 clearly refers to a physiological
state. As Aristotle makes no mention of a mixture ofhumoursanywhere
else, but does mention a particular mixture of heat and cold as the basis for
a healthy physical constitution,^46 it is appropriate to think of a mixture of
qualities. In this theory, melancholics are characterised by a mixture of heat
and cold (either too cold or too hot) that is permanently out of balance,
something which Aristotle clearly regards as a sign ofdisease. Thus this pas-
sage confirms the remark inSomn. vig. 457 a 29 ff., as quoted above; it also
becomes clear that the difference between constitution and disease,^47 which
is problematic in any case, fails because of the nature of the Aristotelian
concept of melancholy: the melancholic is, so to say, constitutionally
ill.^48
(^43) This explains Aristotle’s parenthetic remark about the testimony of thephusiologoi(see Dirlmeier
( 1956 ) 506 ).
(^44) See the use ofeuiatoterainEth. Nic. 1152 a 27.
(^45) See den Dulk ( 1934 ) 67 – 95 and Tracy ( 1969 )passim(in particular 35 – 8 ; 167 – 72 ; 175 – 6 ).
(^46) Ph. 246 b 4 – 5 : ‘the virtues of the body, such as health and handsomeness, we posit in a mixture and
balance of hot and cold’K
n :Loon this see Tracy ( 1969 )
161 – 2 .Cf.Pr. 954 a 15 : ‘the melancholic humour is a mixture of hot and cold, for from these two the
nature (of the body) is constituted’K $ :$ +
T -) 1 *
8 -
# L>On this question see also den Dulk ( 1934 ) 75 f.
(^47) See Dittmer ( 1940 ) 76 – 80 ; and Muri ( ̈ 1953 ) 30 n. 11.
(^48) See the remark made by Klibansky et al. ( 1964 ) 30 : ‘The natural melancholic, however, even when
perfectly well, possessed a quite special “ethos”, which, however it chose to manifest itself, made
him fundamentally and permanently different from “ordinary” men; he was, as it were, normally
abnormal.’