Ancient Remedies

These artifacts demonstrate a few remedies recommended in the past by ancient physicians to help cure melancholy. These remedies correlate with some methods society uses at present to help improve mental health. While many medical advancements have occurred over the past several decades, several present-day treatments for melancholy maintain the same underlying constructs that past remedies consisted of. This display exhibits a couple of these treatments. Earlier in this exhibition, you have seen alternate treatments that are practiced today, such as bath bombs and yoga mats, and how they are similar to what was recommended for people suffering from melancholy in the past.

The first image in this section shows an ancient bathtub. In Galen’s report of Diseases of the Black Bile, he discusses how frequent bathing is “the perfect cure for melancholy,” as well as exercising and eating properly. At this time, it was believed that melancholy stemmed from an imbalance of the four humors: black bile, blood, phlegm, and yellow bile. By carrying out acts that are supposed to improve health and bring balance to one’s life, it was thought that this would balance out the humors, helping repress any excess of black bile in one’s disposition. As seen earlier, bath bombs were displayed as a way to help improve one's mental health. If bath bombs had existed in the past, it would likely have been believed that they reduced melancholia by balancing the humors by causing the black bile to move throughout the body back to where it belongs. Nowadays, science has disproven theories about the humors and bath bombs simply represent a person taking time to themself to relax, which is needed to improve mental health. These two concepts are very different, but the physical action of taking a bath to help improve mental state has remained the same through the centuries.

The second statue is of an ancient Greek athlete. In the past, exercise was another remedy thought to help rid the body of melancholy. This cure holds true to this day. Often, people recommend getting up and out of the house to exercise if a person is feeling sad or despondent. The reasoning behind it now is much more scientific, as exercise has proven to release hormones that improve happiness and mental health, leaving a person with a sense of accomplishment and the rush of endorphins following a workout. In Taiwan, a study was done comparing the effectiveness of CBT, or cognitive behavior therapy, against that of exercise in reducing depression. This study defines depression as having symptoms including sadness, melancholy, and feelings of hopelessness. The results determined that although participants that underwent CBT had a greater reduction in levels of depression, both groups showed a significant decrease in levels of depression. The participant group that exercised, however, showed a greater improvement than the CBT group in their quality of life overall. These results prove that our findings nowadays still remain somewhat consistent with ancient ideals concerning melancholy on some level, despite the reasoning behind it being quite different.