How Did Annie Hall Get Her Name?
The original title for Woody Allen’s film Annie Hall was Anne Hedonia. “Sometimes [depression] is mere passive joylessness and dreariness, discouragement, dejection, lack of taste and zest and spring,” wrote the father of American psychology, William James, in 1902. “Professor Ribot has proposed the name anhedonia to designate this condition.” Anhedonia was derived from the Greek: an , meaning not, and hedone, meaning pleasure–the inability to experience pleasure. If it’s been a while since you’ve genuinely enjoyed your life (or can’t relate much to the terms enjoyment, pleasure, or fun), that may indicate depression. There’s an old joke: Two elderly women are at a Catskill Mountain resort and one of them says, “Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.” The other one says, “Yeah, I know, and such small portions.” Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life. Woody Allen opening lines to Annie Hall Fifteen: Other Types of Depression In addition to the Big Three we discussed on
