Anguish is a strong spiritual yearning, behind which is a desire (or attraction) to possess something (or someone), fueled by memories from the past or dreams from the future. In a dreary state, attention is minimally focused on the possibilities that are now, and heavily focused on what was in the past or what could be in the future.
For example:
- I yearn for my friends (they now live in another city) — this means I really want to see them, but I don’t have such an opportunity now, and I languish, I am tormented by this.
- Longing for the departed love means that I really want to return those sweet moments, and since I don’t have such an opportunity, I suffer.
- Longing for the Motherland means that I really want to be in my native land, but I don’t have such an opportunity, and I’m sad.
- I yearn for a beautiful and strong life — this means I really want it, but I don’t know how to do it, I’m sad.
More examples:
- A dreary life is a life in which there is a lot of melancholy. (But, alas, there was no place for joy).
- A sad mood is a mood filled with longing. (And it could be filled with cheerfulness).
The best cure for boredom is to keep busy.
There is a bright melancholy: it is a mixture of gratitude and sadness at parting, at parting for a long time. We broke up, yes, but I thank you for being together. And I’m a little sad, but I don’t strain you with my sadness.
Bright melancholy can also be a resource state: I am waiting for a new future, I strive for it, and I do everything to make it come.
Longing is the lot of romantics and parasites, rarely consumers. Parasite yearns for those who left and abandoned him, alone and defenseless. Yearning, because now there is no one to take care of him …
Romantic — yearns for a kind and beautiful world, where everything is not so miserable, where people are like brothers, there are no humiliated and offended, where dreams come true, you just have to think about them. The anguish of romance is rather light than gloomy, but absolutely unresourceful. The romantic will not do anything to achieve the desired.
The Creator does not have enough time for melancholy, while the Romantic yearns for a beautiful world, the Creator builds it.
How longing is done
Gloomy longing, like any other emotion, is made up of three components: internal text, facial expressions and body, picture-situation:
- Facial expressions and body: dreary face (dreary eyes), sighs, lowered corners of the lips,
- Inside text: “I’m here on a business trip, how is my beloved dog at home. If only he were here now, we would go for a walk in the park. “Oh, if only to return that time!”
- Picture-situation: The world is grey, rainy, and I have no place in this gray and rainy world.
Light melancholy (aching melancholy)
- Facial expressions and body: warm, grateful and a little sad eyes, a smile on his face, a look forward to a new world.
- Inside text: «Farewell, past! Hello future!
- Picture-situation: Behind is a hospitable city in which half of one’s life has passed, and ahead is a new road running beyond the horizon towards the rising sun.
Anguish symptoms:
- Immersion in thoughts about the past or in pipe dreams.
- Sad eyes, looking into the distance.
- Beautiful and pathos reflections on life, mostly in the past tense.
- Philosophical joyless attitude to the joys of life: what is it, but the past … (or dreaming …).
Melancholy according to Freud
Melancholy, described by Z. Freud, is similar to melancholy, and it is hardly necessary to multiply concepts. One way or another, it is interesting to get acquainted with the analysis of melancholia (longing) made by Z. Freud. See →