英國桂冠詩人阿爾菲德・丁尼生 (Alfred Tennyson) 的生平，或許特別能說明遺傳與環境交互作用如何引發憂鬱症。丁尼生的祖父是個情緒不穩定的人，時而憤怒，時而傷感自憐。丁尼生的祖父育有四個孩子，大女兒伊莉莎白精神正常且快活，但是身體狀況永遠無法與她的精神相稱；她生病時也會憂鬱。二女兒瑪莉是個陰沉且充滿怨恨的喀爾文派信徒，忽喜忽悲地認為是上帝的選民，還設法為自家的某些天懲懺悔。
The life of the English Poet Laureate, Alfred Tennyson, may be particularly illustrative of how genetics and environment interact to trigger depression. Tennyson's grandfather was an emotionally unstable man, alternately angry and sentimental and self-pitying. Tennyson's grandfather had four children. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was mentally healthy and cheerful, but her physical condition never matched her spirit; she became depressed when she was ill. The second daughter, Mary, was a sullen and resentful Calvinist who alternately believed in joy and sorrow that she was God's chosen people, and she also tried to repent of some of her family's divine retribution.
第三個小孩就是詩人丁尼生的父親，他是個精神嚴重失常的教士，除了一再復發的憂鬱症，還患有癲癇、酒癮和鴉片癮。丁尼生在家中排行老四，他的十一個兄弟姐妹中，有一個幾乎終身待在精神病院，據說是躁症之後衰竭而死。另一個兄弟則罹患了某種精神疾病，一個染上鴉片癮，一個嚴重酗酒。此外，這個大家庭的每個成員，在一生中至少有過一次精神崩潰。
The third child was the father of the poet Tennyson. He was a severely mentally disturbed priest. In addition to recurring depression, he also suffered from epilepsy, alcohol addiction, and opium addiction. Tennyson was the fourth eldest child in his family. Among his eleven siblings, one of them committed to an asylum almost all his life. It is said that he died of exhaustion from a manic episode. The other brother also suffered from mental illness, one was addicted to opium and the other was a serious alcoholic. Furthermore, every member of this extended family had at least one mental breakdown in their lives.
丁尼生本身也在精神病院待過，不過不確定他是否為病人。可以確定的是，終其一生，他的憂鬱症一再復發，而且有嚴重的菸癮和酒癮。在聽到摯友死訊後的數天內，丁尼生著手寫下了《悼念》詩集，並陸陸續續寫了近十七年的時間。他本無意出版，但是詩集問世後卻極為成功。「和緩的麻醉劑」一詞，就出自丁尼生的《悼念》詩集：「對不平靜的心和腦，韻文有其妙用，彷如和緩的麻醉劑，使人不痛不苦。」
Tennyson himself also spent time in a mental hospital, although it is not clear whether he stayed there as a patient. What is certain is that throughout his life he suffered from recurring depression and severe addictions to cigarettes and alcohol. Within days of hearing the news of his best friend's death, Tennyson began writing an elegy, In Memoriam, which he continued working on for nearly seventeen years. He had no intention of publishing it, but the collection of poems became extremely successful after it came out. The term "dull narcotics" might originate from the lines In Memoriam: "But, for the unquiet heart and brain, A use in measured language lies; The sad mechanic exercise, Like dull narcotics, numbing pain."
美國傳記作家馬丁 (Robert Bernard Martin) 在丁尼生傳記最後提到詩的另一個作用，那就是緩和憂鬱症和疑病症：「在創造詩的和諧及其象徵秩序時，他能暫時感受到適用於自己生活的某種和諧及整體性，而直到他死亡為止，寫詩一直都具備這種功能。」這說明了創作力在狂人生活中扮演的角色，比麻醉作用更為深遠。
At the end of Tennyson's biography, American biographer Robert Bernard Martin mentioned another function of poetry, which is to alleviate melancholy and hypochondriasis: "In creating the harmony of poetry and its symbolic order, he could temporarily feel a certain harmony and wholeness that applied to his life, and until his death, writing poetry always had this function.” This shows that creativity plays a more profound role in the life of a madman than mere anaesthesia.
秩序、和諧及整體性的追求，對各種氣質的人而言都是極為重要的生活動力。每個人內心對想像力都有某種程度的渴望，內心越是不和諧，尋求和諧的驅策力就越強，而有天賦的人，也就越想要「創造」和諧。這正是為什麼英國詩人愛德華・托馬斯會有那樣的疑問，他質疑一旦消除了憂鬱症，是否也會把鞭策他寫作的激情給一併消除掉。
The pursuit of order, harmony and integrity are extremely important motivations for people of all temperaments. Everyone has a certain degree of desire for imagination in their hearts. The more disharmonious the heart is, the stronger the drive to seek harmony, and the more talented people want to "create" harmony. This is why the English poet Edward Thomas wondered whether removing his depression would also remove the passion that fueled his writing.
理智上對美有所認知，感情上卻無法欣賞，是憂鬱症的特徵之一，而一再發作的憂鬱症會伴隨著空乏感而生，詩人柯柏 (William Cowper) 的例子很能說明這種現象。他以駭人的詩文生動的描繪了憂鬱症發作期間的現象，就是對他人的敵意嚴重到轉而攻擊自我。
Being able to recognize beauty intellectually but not be able to appreciate it emotionally is one of the characteristics of depression, and repeated episodes of depression are often accompanied by a sense of depletion. The poet William Cowper is a good example of this phenomenon. One of his horrifying poems vividly describes the phenomenon during a melancholic episode, when hostility toward others becomes so severe that it turns to self-blame.
柯柏的生活習慣和宿命的態度也助長了憂鬱，他經年懶散無為的屈服於生活環境。柯柏在憂鬱時，會覺得自己無法對抗邪惡的力量，但當他發現自己能夠寫作之後，便不時成功的克服了這種無助感。
Cowper's lifestyle and fatalistic attitude also contributed to his depression, as he succumbed to his circumstances through years of indolence. When Cowper was depressed, he would feel that he was unable to fight against the evil power, but when he discovered that he could write, he often successfully overcame this feeling of helplessness.
他的朋友奧絲婷女士，經常敦促他嘗試新的寫作。其實，鼓勵一個憂鬱的人去做某件事是如履薄冰的，因為你必須把同情與直言的分寸拿捏得很好。太過同情，會加深憂鬱者的無助感和無望感，而太直言無諱，又會使得他覺得沒有人了解他的絕望。
One of his friends, Lady Ann Austen, often urged him to try new writings. In fact, encouraging a depressed person to do something is walking on thin ice because you have to walk a fine line between sympathy and outspokenness. Being too sympathetic will deepen the depressed person's sense of helplessness and hopelessness, while being too outspoken will make him feel that no one understands his despair.
奧絲婷女士建議柯柏嘗試創作無韻詩，柯柏回答說找不到主題，「那就寫寫這張沙發椅吧！」她說，而他從善如流。這首詩後來變成數千行之長的「任務」。柯柏在詩中傾吐了對人間景況的感受，也理解這首長詩的寫作對自己具備了治療效果。
When Lady Ann Austen suggested that Cowper try writing a blank verse, he replied that he couldn't find a theme. “Why don’t you write about this sofa,” she said, and he followed suit. The poem turned into a "Task" thousands of lines long. In the poem, Cowper poured out his feelings about humans, and he also understood that the writing of this long poem had a therapeutic effect on himself.
他在〈任務之三〉寫道：「一個人肯留意內在的自我，有感情且保住感情，他就會有飢渴的心智，且能止飢解渴。一個人追求社交但不放蕩，他就不得閒，而且會覺得自己要完成一項雖平靜，但絕非瑣碎的任務。」
“He that attends to his interior self,
That has a heart, and keeps it; has a mind
That hungers, and supplies it; and who seeks
A social, not a dissipated life;
Has business; feels himself engag'd t' achieve
No unimportant, though a silent, task.” – The Task, Book III ─ The Garden
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˗ˏˋ 我們知道，外向者常常因過度順應他人而失去自我，而適時的「孤獨」則可以讓他們回復並表達真實的自我。我們也知道，因幼年的分離和孤立而心靈受創的人，可以在想像中尋求慰藉。
創作過程可以使人不被憂鬱擊垮，使得充滿無力感的人能夠重拾支配感。此外，因喪親而受傷的自我，或者因對人失去信心而受傷的自我，也可以在創作過程中修復到某種程度。
ʢᵕᴗᵕʡ ˎˊ˗.*･ﾟ
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