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The Two Kinds of Depression According to St. Paul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Mark D. Altschule
Mark D. Altschule*
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Clinical Physiology, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts
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Extract

One current classification of depression divides the syndrome into psychotic and non-psychotic varieties. It is interesting that a similar classification developed over a thousand years ago out of some words of St. Paul. In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, Ch. 7, v. 10, Paul wrote: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” The word sorrow used in English translations of the Bible stood for the tristitia of Latin versions (Greek λνπη); connoting sadness, sorrow, despondency, depression. Paul's distinction between the two kinds of tristitia, the one “from God” and the other “of the world”, led mediaeval theologians to enlarge on differences between the two kinds of depression.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 113 , Issue 500 , July 1967 , pp. 779 - 780
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1967 

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References

Rand, E. K. (1957). Founders of the Middle Ages. New York: Dover Publications.Google Scholar
Sharpe, W. D. (1964). “Isidore of Seville: The medical writings.” In: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society N.S., 54, Part II.Google Scholar
Snyder, S. (1965). “The left hand of God: despair in medieval and Renaissance tradition.” In: Studies in the Renaissance, 12, 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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