Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Abraham Lincoln's struggle with Depression
Fox News ^ | Feb 2024 | Melissa Rudy

Posted on 12/08/2024 3:24:04 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

He is perhaps best known for his honesty — but a lesser-known fact about Abraham Lincoln is that the 16th president of the United States battled severe depression during his lifetime.

Dr. Chris Tuell, a clinical psychotherapist and a chemical and behavioral addiction specialist at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, has studied Lincoln’s mental health struggles extensively.

"Though the history books play a significant role in our perception and understanding of the ‘rail splitter’ from Illinois, it often becomes easy for us to forget that Abraham Lincoln was very human," Tuell told Fox News Digital.

"Lincoln led this nation through its worst crisis, while at the same time battling his own internal war of chronic depression."

At age 32, in a letter to John Stuart in 1841, Lincoln wrote, "I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell; I awfully forebode I shall not; to remain as I am is impossible."

Lincoln scholars have "clear evidence" that he suffered from depressive episodes beginning in his 20s, Tuell noted.

The president’s mental health condition can be attributed to both genetics and traumatic experiences, according to the book "Lincoln’s Melancholy" by Joshua Wolf Shenk.

After his brother died in infancy, Lincoln’s mother, aunt and uncle all died when he was just 9 years old. A decade later, his sister died while delivering a stillborn infant.

Later, Lincoln experienced the loss of his first love, Ann Rutledge, in 1835.

As a father, he experienced the death of two young sons, Eddie and Willie.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: abelincoln; abrahamlincoln; christuell; civilwar; depression; godsgravesglyphs; greatestpresident; johnstuart; joshuawolfshenk; lincoln; lincolnsmelancholy; melancholy; mentalhealth; pages
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last
President Trump alluded poignantly to Lincoln's melancholy following the loss of his sons, on the Joe Rogan Podcast while describing the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House.
1 posted on 12/08/2024 3:24:04 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Bookmark


2 posted on 12/08/2024 3:27:00 PM PST by Southside_Chicago_Republican (God save the United States!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

lincoln logs...


3 posted on 12/08/2024 3:33:26 PM PST by heavy metal (smiling improves your face value and makes people wonder what the hell you're up to... 😁)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Abraham Lincoln apparently got over his depression by killing Southern Christians who disagreed with him.


4 posted on 12/08/2024 4:41:56 PM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

The Lincoln Bedroom during Lincoln’s time in office was used as an office and Cabinet Room. It was also where he signed The Emancipation Proclamation. The bed that is in the room today is the bed that his son Willie died in on February 20, 1862.


5 posted on 12/08/2024 4:42:06 PM PST by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Bttt


6 posted on 12/08/2024 4:46:11 PM PST by combat_boots
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jan_Sobieski

If you think that Lincoln was harsh, be glad that Trump’s hero Andrew Jackson wasn’t President during the Civil War. The war would have been over in months, and traitors would have been quickly delt wiylth. Lincoln was a bumbler for 3 years of the War.


7 posted on 12/08/2024 4:55:13 PM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Abe was my 1st cousin 9 times removed. We both have a great-great-... grandfather named Tom Hanks. (Not that one). His grandfather... and my grandfather... were brothers.


8 posted on 12/08/2024 4:56:17 PM PST by FrankRizzo890
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege
If he'd known that roughly one million of the slaves he just had freed -- one in four -- would be dead in five years time (or less), he'd have saved Booth the touble of shooting him.

Downs documents that by the time of the 1870 US Census, 1 million of the 4 million slaves recorded in the 1860 census had simply vanished, dead from privations, disease or misadventure, chiefly because Lincoln had made no provisions for their maintenance or survival.

9 posted on 12/08/2024 5:21:00 PM PST by Paal Gulli
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

If i was married to Mary Todd I’d be nutz too.


10 posted on 12/08/2024 5:29:14 PM PST by know.your.why
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jan_Sobieski

Our revisionist historians have gone to great lengths to portray “ honest Abe “ as a secular saint.

He was a crooked railroad lawyer, whose only motive for denying the Southern states their constitutional right to secede was financial.

Slavery ended everywhere in the Western world without bloodshed.

Except the U.S.

Lincoln’s own words betray the fact that he believed blacks were inferior, and should be deported after the war.


11 posted on 12/08/2024 5:30:59 PM PST by BrexitBen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: BrexitBen
...only motive for denying the Southern states their constitutional right to secede was financial.

Exactly! Deny the slave owners / plantation owners the dehumanizing free labor of slavery...a HUGE financial gain. All because they were too lazy/cheap/crooked to pay fair market price for dignified labor.
12 posted on 12/08/2024 5:50:35 PM PST by know.your.why
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: know.your.why

Yale and Brown Universities are named after the men who originally endowed them.

They made their huge fortunes in the ports of Rhode Island and Connecticut, off of the African slave trade.

You won’t hear this from Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Michael Beschloss, revisionist historians, who love ol’ Abe, the “ great emancipator “, who butchered the Southern states.


13 posted on 12/08/2024 6:25:14 PM PST by BrexitBen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

We are still struggling with the Union government, thank you very mudh,. Hopefully, Trump can fix it.


14 posted on 12/08/2024 6:45:27 PM PST by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BrexitBen

The Slave Power was fine running roufshood, and using the Federal Government l. When they lost, They had a sissy fit and tried to rip the UNION apart. They held the South Hostage, and the South payed for it.


15 posted on 12/08/2024 7:05:53 PM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: mass55th

Trump got all that grief about saying that Jackson saw the Civil War coming but this is what he said in 1833: “ THE tariff context was a pretext, and a Southern Confederacy was the object, THE NEXT PRETIXT WILL BE THE SLAVERY QUESTION.


16 posted on 12/08/2024 7:11:02 PM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Ping for Chad


17 posted on 12/08/2024 7:17:01 PM PST by WhattheDickens? (Funny, I didn’t think this was 1984…)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


18 posted on 12/08/2024 7:22:49 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

That is just sorrow. We are taking it too far by calling it depression.


19 posted on 12/08/2024 8:05:28 PM PST by nwrep
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BrexitBen
Slavery ended everywhere in the Western world without bloodshed.

Yep! England being the best example. Wealthy northerners were also funding terrorist organizations like Jon Brown to stir up war. They saw dollar signs in crushing the south. Western Christianity has been decimated by such foolishness
20 posted on 12/09/2024 3:17:22 AM PST by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-28 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson