Lincoln's Melancholy

[Eva Elisabeth]

(10-12-2016 11:53 AM)Rob Wick Wrote:  

Quote:I still think Lincoln suffered through periods of extreme sadness and melancholy, but IMO, he was not truly mentally ill or suffering from clinical depression.

Roger,

Of course, we are free to disagree and I certainly respect your opinion and your reasoning. I wonder, however, if there is a possibility of depressive episodes being followed by days, weeks, months or even years of relative stability with the underlying illness still present? I know in patients who are bipolar, symptoms are often reduced when a medicinal regimen is followed, although medicines often lose their effectiveness which makes it a difficult illness to treat. As I stated earlier, it cannot be proven conclusively, but there is far too much evidence to ignore, in my view.

Best
Rob

I would agree on periods of clinical depression, but is clinical depression mental illness? I am not in favor of that term, and I think better and correct would be mental disorder (i. e. acute condition).

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(10-12-2016 03:18 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  This is probably a long shot, but another thing that came to my mind was the possibility of a stroke. I realize strokes are rare in a person that age, but I was wondering about the possibility of bleeding in the brain causing permanent psychiatric illness. If this happened it could have changed Matthew suddenly and permanently if the damage in the brain never could heal and would still cause the same "insane" behavior 20 years later which Abraham observed. Like I said this is probably unlikely, but if it happened in a certain area of the brain, I think there can be psychiatric symptoms in some people.

Or a brain tumor.