Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

Aristotle on melancholy 151For people constantly feel pleasure in their youth because they are growing; conversely,melancholics by nature constantly need to be cured , for the ‘mixture’ of their bodies keeps them in a constant state of stimulation and they are always subjectto intense desires According to Aristotle the pain is driven out by pleasure, once it has gainedsufficient 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’smoral behaviour is discussed (hence the remark about lack of discipline).Aristotle speaks about people who even perceive the normal state as painfuldue to their nature (dia tēn phusin), their physiological constitution. 43 Apparently,melancholics serve as an example for this group: they constantlyrequire cures by nature, that is, in their normal state. They might be said to bepermanently ill, 44 for their bodies are permanently ‘bitten’ (daknomenon)asa result of their ‘mixture’ (krasis). The word krasis, which plays an importantpart in Greek medicine and physiology, 45 clearly refers to a physiologicalstate. As Aristotle makes no mention of a mixture of humours anywhereelse, but does mention a particular mixture of heat and cold as the basis fora healthy physical constitution, 46 it is appropriate to think of a mixture ofqualities. In this theory, melancholics are characterised by a mixture of heatand cold (either too cold or too hot) that is permanently out of balance,something which Aristotle clearly regards as a sign of disease. Thus this passageconfirms the remark in Somn. vig. 457 a 29ff., as quoted above; it alsobecomes clear that the difference between constitution and disease, 47 whichis problematic in any case, fails because of the nature of the Aristotelianconcept of melancholy: the melancholic is, so to say, constitutionallyill. 4843 This explains Aristotle’s parenthetic remark about the testimony of the phusiologoi (see Dirlmeier(1956) 506).44 See the use of euiatotera in Eth. 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 andbalance of hot and cold’ on 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 thenature (of the body) is constituted’ On this question see also den Dulk (1934) 75f.47 See Dittmer (1940) 76–80; and Müri (1953) 30 n. 11.48 See the remark made by Klibansky et al. (1964) 30: ‘The natural melancholic, however, even whenperfectly well, possessed a quite special “ethos”, which, however it chose to manifest itself, madehim fundamentally and permanently different from “ordinary” men; he was, as it were, normallyabnormal.’