![]() It was only in Elizabethan England that melancholia was first understood as something that could be caused by external forces, and experienced ‘spiritually’. Hippocrates and other ancient Greeks considered it to be a ‘physiological’ condition caused by an imbalance in the four basic bodily liquids, or ‘humours’. Melancholia, which literally means ‘black bile’. It is little surprise then that melancholia was the name given to this condition by the Greeks. And any effort to seek it would bring with it the certain stab in the gut. The day had barely begun, but my reserve of energy, which was meant to resuscitate itself with the night’s sleep was not within reach. ![]() I remembered then lying in bed in a similar stupor on mornings during a particularly sordid time in my relationship with my partner. What also began to become clear to me at that time was that it wasn’t just the pain of losing a loved one to death that had manifested itself in my body in this way. There is a reason why my psychotherapist friends often ask in their sessions, when people are unable to put their feelings into words, ‘Where did it hurt in your body’? ALSO READ: COVID-19 and You: Grief, Mental Health and Julian Barnes’ Nothing to be Frightened Of In the morning on many days, after the kids had left for school, and my partner for work, I would lie unmoving in bed, staring into space, aware that if I moved even a finger, it would be like a sharp stab deep in my gut, and I would not be able to staunch the wound on my own. In those days, I began noticing debilitating bouts of body ache, particularly pain in my shoulders, which would fill my being with lassitude. At inopportune moments, especially in a closed room with several people, I would feel my chest contracting till I felt I had to fall back on the Lamaze breathing I had been taught when I was pregnant with my first child. After my father’s death I began to understand what that insightful set of words meant. GradeSaver, 1 January 2018 Web.Grief lives in the body, someone said. Next Section Character List Previous Section About The Year of Magical Thinking Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Lin, Alexander. She says that she has finally let go of him. She writes at the end of the book that it is December 31, 2004, exactly a year and a day since John’s death. In October, she begins to write The Year of Magical Thinking. In July, Joan reports at the Democratic and Republican conventions, the first writing job she has done since John’s death. Joan cares for her during these times while continuing to cope with John’s death by recalling old memories with him and reading literary works and medical literature. In April she is transferred to the Rusk Institute in New York. She sustains a life-threatening brain hemorrhage from a fall on the airport tarmac and goes under operation at the UCLA Medical Center. On March 25, 2004, Quintana flies with her husband Gerry to California. ![]() John’s funeral is held on March 23, 2004, so that Quintana can attend after having made some recovery. Over the next few months Joan struggles to cope with the grief over her husband’s death and to go through with the proper procedures of mourning. John collapses of a sudden heart attack and is taken to the hospital, but he does not survive. On December 30, after seeing their daughter in the hospital, Joan and John return home to have dinner. Over the next few days her condition worsens into a full-body infection that necessitates intensive treatment. On December 22, 2003, Joan Didion’s and John Gregory Dunne’s daughter Quintana Roo Dunne is admitted to the Beth Israel Hospital in New York due to a flu and high fever. ![]()
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