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The Valorization of Sadness: Alienation and the Melancholic Temperament
Author(s) -
KRAMER PETER D.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
hastings center report
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.515
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1552-146X
pISSN - 0093-0334
DOI - 10.2307/3528307
Subject(s) - sadness , alienation , temperament , psychology , psychoanalysis , social psychology , anger , political science , personality , law
In the Western aesthetic of melancholy, alienation and authenticity walk hand in hand, and therapies that change affective states—especially drugs like Prozac—are philosophically suspect. This is not a necessary state of affairs. What would be the central philosophical questions in a culture whose aesthetic values rose from the well‐springs of optimism?