Hilarious and encyclopedic pioneering analysis of bi-polar disorder by a 17th-Century English polymath who suffered from it, composing the work apparently during his manic phases. The author was both an ordained clergyman and a university professor; the lengthy effusive tome is delivered like a church sermon packed with learned allusions and citations in a delightful King-James style mingling prose and poetry. His favorite term and concept is "etc.," like the trill concluding an accelerating musical phrase of ever-shorter notes. Since the publishers could justify printing only for the mass of vernacular readers, he was obliged to provide English translations for his preferred Latin citations and original compositions. The edition I read features sturdy pages and binding for duty as a reference work for its plentiful quotations. It even includes a glossary to decode some of the idiosyncratic, unfamiliar, or altered vocabulary.
The author apologizes for trespassing from his humanities field into medicine, which in those days were not so far apart, both practitioners being doctors after all. Although some of the anatomical knowledge is surprisingly accurate, much of the amusing medical and theological lore is thoroughly outdated. Particularly perceptive is the analysis of the various ways people are attracted to Divinity and to one another, and the resulting melancholy effects, which have not changed over the millennia. The horrors of an incompatible marriage are graphically delineated. Laying out all sides of every argument, from antiquity to his contemporaries, the author wisely declines "most part" to assert an authoritative conclusion, allowing his sources to speak for themselves. He stresses that scholars do little more than improve upon their predecessors' efforts. Taking on the persona of Democritus, a celebrated manic materialist philosopher from Greek antiquity who studied the folly of mankind and was known for dissecting animals to find out what made them tick, Burton's research into everything he could find dealing with insanity led to the conclusion that everyone has at least a touch of it. He declares that the herb used to purge it should be as plentiful as grass.
He traces the causes to the seven deadly sins and all other human failings, intemperate obsessions, misfortunes, planetary influence, witchcraft, and unbalanced humors (i.e. hormones), identifying solitary scholars like himself as particularly susceptible (although immersion in study can also be a cure). The same causes foster physical ailments as well, which in turn also contribute to manic-depression. The author cautions hypochondriacs to avoid reading the parts of the book describing symptoms.
As might be expected for what is ultimately a mental disorder, the recommended treatment consists of brainwashing techniques (which can also be a cause of aberrant manic-depressive behavior). Reversing or avoiding the underlying causes is favored. Success is more likely when the patient consents to treatment, and acknowledges the condition in the first place. Mortification of the flesh gives the intellect mastery over runaway emotions, particularly effective with lovesick youths, but can also lead to manic-depressive brainwashing. Incantations against demonic influence can be pronounced by clergymen or conjurors. Bloodletting to balance the humors was performed through accidental wounds or purposeful surgical procedures, a different trade from physicians. Trepanning and adventitious scull fractures were considered beneficial in venting noxious cranial vapors. A last resort is elixirs, pills, and lotions composed of herbs, precious gems or metals, or other minerals, ground into alcohol, flavoring, or sweetener. Tobacco is praised as a cure-all, or at least an effective treatment, but not to be used recreationally (in the days when tobacco was as plentiful as grass, there was little talk of depression). Remedies are to be tried in order from gentlest to harshest until encountering one (or a combination) that has a positive effect. Concluding the book is a thoroughgoing sermon making an effective case for salvation through the freshly purified Protestant establishment creeds. This was obviously considered the ultimate solution to the central problem of the treatise.
Lurking among the stated primary topics are in-depth jeremiads on numerous related ethical and scientific tangents, prefiguring Denis Diderot's method of concealing sensitive diatribes from censors among innocuous entries in his French encyclopedia. These insightful speculative digressions do not hesitate to draw conclusions which would not be out of place in more modern contexts. They could be discounted as the ravings of a manic-depressive fool in the tradition of the court jester. It would be interesting to observe how the digressions evolved during the course of the different editions of the book, which coincided with an episode of revolutionary ferment in English society.
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Neil Morris
Really good, it's size is daunting
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 25, 2024
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One of the greatest books in the English language
Reviewed in Australia on March 3, 2024