Melancholy is an antiquated word that for centuries was used but has now fallen out of favor in psychology.
Melancholy is a particular species of sadness. It isn’t an illness or a mental problem. It’s just a human problem. Melancholy tends to involve the pleasure of reflection and contemplation of the things we love, lost, or long for.
The author, Susan Sontag; says, “depression is melancholy minus its charms.”
Melancholy then is my speed of light time machine into the past and my path into a more creative self, where I can yearn, become wistful, and even comforted.
“I can barely conceive of beauty, in which there is no melancholy.” Charles Baudelaire