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Sadness is part of the human experience,

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but for centuries there has 
been vast disagreement

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over what exactly it is and what,
if anything, to do about it.

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In its simplest terms,

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sadness is often thought of

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as the natural reaction 
to a difficult situation.

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You feel sad when a friend moves away
or when a pet dies.

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When a friend says, "I'm sad,"

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you often respond by asking,
"What happened?"

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But your assumption that sadness
has an external cause outside the self

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is a relatively new idea.

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Ancient Greek doctors didn't
view sadness that way.

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They believed it was a dark fluid
inside the body.

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According to their humoral system,

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the human body and soul were controlled
by four fluids, known as humors,

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and their balance directly influenced
a person's health and temperament.

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Melancholia comes from
melaina kole,

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the word for black bile,
the humor believed to cause sadness.

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By changing your diet
and through medical practices,

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you could bring your humors
into balance.

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Even though we now know
much more about the systems

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that govern the human body,

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these Greek ideas about sadness

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resonate with current views,

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not on the sadness we all
occasionally feel,

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but on clinical depression.

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Doctors believe that certain 
kinds of long-term,

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unexplained emotional states are at least
partially related to brain chemistry,

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the balance of various chemicals 
present inside the brain.

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Like the Greek system,

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changing the balance of these chemicals
can deeply alter

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how we respond to even extremely
difficult circumstances.

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There's also a long tradition
of attempting to discern

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the value of sadness,

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and in that discussion,

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you'll find a strong argument
that sadness is not only

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an inevitable part of life
but an essential one.

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If you've never felt melancholy,

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you've missed out on part of
what it means to be human.

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Many thinkers contend that melancholy
is necessary in gaining wisdom.

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Robert Burton, born in 1577,

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spent his life studying the causes
and experience of sadness.

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In his masterpiece
"The Anatomy of Melancholy,"

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Burton wrote, "He that increaseth wisdom
increaseth sorrow."

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The Romantic poets of 
the early 19th century

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believed melancholy allows us to more
deeply understand other profound emotions,

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like beauty and joy.

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To understand the sadness of the trees
losing their leaves in the fall

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is to more fully understand the cycle
of life that brings flowers in the spring.

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But wisdom and emotional intelligence seem
pretty high on the hierarchy of needs.

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Does sadness have value on
a more basic, tangible,

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maybe even evolutionary level?

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Scientists think that crying
and feeling withdrawn

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is what originally helped our
ancestors secure social bonds

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and helped them get the support they needed.

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Sadness, as opposed to anger or violence,
was an expression of suffering

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that could immediately bring people closer
to the suffering person,

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and this helped both the person
and the larger community to thrive.

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Perhaps sadness helped generate
the unity we needed to survive,

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but many have wondered whether
the suffering felt by others

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is anything like the suffering
we experience ourselves.

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The poet Emily Dickinson wrote,

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"I measure every Grief I meet
With narrow, probing Eyes -

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I wonder if it weighs like MIne -
Or has an Easier size."

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And in the 20th century,


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medical anthropologists,
like Arthur Kleinman,

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gathered evidence from the way
people talk about pain

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to suggest that emotions aren't
universal at all,

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and that culture, particularly the way
we use language,

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can influence how we feel.

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When we talk about heartbreak,

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the feeling of brokenness 
becomes part of our experience,

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where as in a culture that talks 
about a bruised heart,

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there actually seems to be a different
subjective experience.

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Some contemporary thinkers 
aren't interested

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in sadness' subjectivity 
versus universality,

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and would rather use technology to
eliminate suffering in all its forms.

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David Pearce has suggested
that genetic engineering

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and other contemporary processes

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cannot only alter the way humans
experience emotional and physical pain,

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but that world ecosystems 
ought to be redesigned

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so that animals don't suffer in the wild.

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He calls his project 
"paradise engineering."

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But is there something sad about
a world without sadness?

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Our cavemen ancestors and favorite poets

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might not want any part 
of such a paradise.

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In fact, the only things about sadness
that seem universally agreed upon

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are that it has been felt by most
people throughout time,

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and that for thousands of years,

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one of the best ways we have to deal
with this difficult emotion

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is to articulate it, to try to express
what feels inexpressable.

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In the words of Emily Dickinson,

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"'Hope' is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -

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"And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -"