“How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable seem to me all the uses of this world!”—Hamlet in Shakespeare's play.

A clearly depressed Hamlet can't find any pleasure in life. The sparkle has gone out of his life, rendering it flat and dull. He has anhedonia, an inability to enjoy life.

Anhedonia is often forgotten in the diagnosis of depression precisely because of its dullness, and its lack of drama. Even sadness has more color and pathos than anhedonia. There is a narrative and a tension to sadness and anxiety that is lacking in anhedonia. And yet, if one analyzes the cluster of symptoms that are commonly found in a depressive disorder, it soon becomes apparent that most of them are not particularly specific to depression.........

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