Quotes from Joshua Wolf Shenk

in Born Losers: A History of Failure in America

As the psychiatrist Kay Redfield Jamison writes, "There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that, compared to 'normal' individuals, artists, writers, and creative people in general are both psychologically 'sicker'—that is, they score higher on a wide variety of measures of psychopathology—and psychologically healthier (for example, they show quite elevated scores on measures of self-confidence and ego strength)

The verb "un-man" is defined in a nineteenth-century dictionary as "to break or subdue the manly spirit in; to cause to despond; to dishearten; to make womanish." In other words, there was a sense that truly going off the deep end—being unable to work or function, as happens in the disease of depression—ran contrary to true masculinity.

Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them.

No element of Mr. Lincoln's character," declared his colleague Henry Whitney, "was so marked, obvious and ingrained as his mysterious and profound melancholy." His law partner William Herndon said, "His melancholy dripped from him as he walked.

And he was moved by the contrast with his own condition. A free man, relatively prosperous, just ending five weeks in luxury's lap, and he was quite unhappy. The slaves, treated abominably, at least showed cheer—the appearance of happiness.

The suffering he had endured lent him clarity, discipline, and faith in hard times—perhaps especially in hard times.

it is plain that thoughts, feelings, and behavior beget like thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

As decisively as Lincoln left the rural life, he left the Baptist church as well. In New Salem he became widely known as an infidel. He rejected eternal damnation, innate sin, the divinity of Jesus, and the infallibility of the Bible.

He concluded his speech by citing an old parable, of an Eastern monarch who charged his wise men to invent a sentence that would apply to all times and in all situations. The wise men returned with "And this too shall pass away.

Don't you find," he said, "judging from his picture, that his eyes are full of tears and that his lips are sad with a secret sorrow?

Another well-known study, led by Nancy Andreasen, used structured interviews and matched control groups to examine thirty writers at the prestigious University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Eighty percent of the writers met formal criteria for a major mood disorder, compared with thirty percent of controls matched for age, education, and sex.

Perhaps," observes James McPherson, "McClellan's career had been too successful. He had never known . . . the despair of defeat or the humiliation of failure. He had never learned the lessons of adversity and humility." Lincoln had clearly learned those lessons.

die when I may, I want it said of me by those who know me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow."   Late

He said gloomily, despairing, sadly: 'How hard, oh, how hard it is to die and leave one's country no better than if one had never lived for it.

As president, he explained why he would pardon soldiers who deserted for cowardice: "It would frighten the poor devils to death to shoot them.

As late as 1820, families made three quarters of all goods—food, clothing, tools—for their own use.

In the early nineteenth century, a new culture—a new idea about what to hope for—emerged for many Americans, centered around the independent self, under nation and God.

You," she said, "are the ugliest man I ever saw." Sadly, the man answered, "Perhaps so, but I can't help that." "No," the woman allowed, "but you might stay at home.

Today, many people not only take the self for granted but struggle mightily to connect it to anything larger. In Lincoln's time, the idea of the self had the power—tinged with uncertainty, even with danger—of something emerging and ascending.

An argument can be made—a rigorous, persuasive argument—that every good new thing results from a teeming complexity.

The Perspectives of Psychiatry, Paul R. McHugh and Phillip R. Slavney identify four approaches to a suffering person.

so if a side of ourselves is not getting expressed—say, we are all 'persona' but no 'shadow'—we unconsciously seek out compensatory opposites, often via relationships

A person who has one parent or sibling with major depression is one and a half to three times more likely than the general population to experience it.