Sadness
2nd millennium B.C.
The emotion we know as sadness was originally called "melancholia." The earliest accounts of this melancholia is from Mesopotamian texts in the second millennium B.C., which attributed all emotional deviations from the norm to demonic possession, which were attended to by priests.
Robert Burton published "Anatomy of Melancholy," where he discussed the possible causes of sadness, but did not see it as a terrible issue. In fact, Burton wrote "He who increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow." The idea that sadness was a natural effect of intelligence or creativity was common all the way through the 19th century.
1628 CE
Mid-1800s
Emily Dickinson wrote the poem "I measure every Grief I meet," where she questions if sadness is the same to everyone. Today, it is widely understood and accepted that sadness and how it feels varies across cultures.
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"I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, eyes – I wonder if It weighs like Mine – Or has an Easier size."
19th CEntury
During the Romantic period, sadness - still called melancholy - was viewed in a positive manner, as long as the symptoms were mild and manageable. It was believed that anguish could lead to creative genius. Nonetheless, even today, it is understood that sadness is a natural reaction of living as a human.
1969
Anthropologist and psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman introduces the idea that emotions are not universal and vary cross-culturally and by families within cultures. In his studies, Kleinman looked specifically at sadness. He asked subjects from different cultural backgrounds to describe the feeling of sadness. Because of the great variation in answers (from conceptual understanding of the emotion and its physical effects), Kleinman was confident in concluding there was a cultural difference in human understanding of sadness.
2007
David Pearce suggests the use of biotechnology to eliminate suffering for both humans and animals. His work, culminated in the Abolitionist Project, suggests genetically altering our descendents to eliminate both physical and psychological pain. Further, Pearce justifies his idea with current trends of "designer drugs" and a "reproductive revolution" where scientists can genetically engineer what once was considered solely up to nature.
