Dead to the World: The Passions of Herman Melville (IN: Essays in Self-Destruction, ed. by E S Shneidman)

Henry Murray compares the state of “affectlessness” found in Herman Melville’s writings to the withdrawal of affect found among a sample of 220 former mental patients who had commited suicide. The behavior of these patients was characterized by crying spells, fist fights & violent episodes, severe depression, periods of mutism & withdrawal, & periodic escape from the hospital. Murray compares this behavior to emotional states found in Melville’s works (NBB)