The science of behavioral epigenetic explores how melancholy can be passed down through the generations at the level of our DNA. Long seen as a key element in artistic inspiration, melancholia often helps turn pain and sorrow into healing, ultimately leading to an acceptance of life’s inescapable emotional sufferings and wounds. Indigenous and shamanic cultures such as that of Aboriginal Australia have long believed that whatever suffering we have absorbed from our ancestors’ experiences can be psychically healed in the present by an effort of understanding.
