Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States experienced at least two clear-cut episodes of major depression, and struggled with chronic depression throughout his life. In his remarkable biography, Lincoln’s Melancholy, Joshua Wolf Shenk carefully documents Lincoln’s struggle with ongoing depression and the role it played in helping him to develop internal resources that he was able to harness to become one of the greatest American presidents. Shenk’s book is at once a fascinating biography of a great man, a critique of the medicalization of psychology, an astute analysis of the interplay between culture and psychology, and a meditation on the meaning of human suffering.
