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Rating:  -
I was pleasantly surprized that this small volume gave me a clear grasp of how debilitating this condition can be. I am studying Clinical Psych in grad school and this volume gets to the point of the matter quickly.
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I have bought over 30 copies of this book, as gifts to friends, colleagues, and relatives. I hope you readers see that that is the highest recommendation one can give.
It explains, in a very concise manner, major depression to those who have not experienced it. And an "Amen" from individuals who have experienced it.
Depression is perhaps THE under-diagnosed illness of our time (along with diabetes). Yet the medical profession really knows little, and it is near impossible for the suffering individual to describe exactly what is going on (chicken & egg?). William Styron is an award-winning, gifted, writer - who is able to put the indescribable into words that mean something to everyone. That is why this small book is important.
Everyone knows someone suffering from this disease, even if they don't recognize it yet. So, Everyone needs to be familiar with major depression. Science needs a Lot more work -- the current biological and psychological treatments are inadequate, to say the least -- especially considering the high risk of suicide with this disease. Everyone needs to know how to get beyond the crises. Lives can be saved.
Therefore, understanding - by sufferers and those who care about them - is key. Such understanding will help non-sufferers provide the assistance and support that he/she wants to give to the depressed person. Without such understanding, so-called "supporters" inadvertently make things worse.
This book is a quick, engrossing, read that may Really help. Highly recommended.
Rating:  -
(This is from the recorded version, read by the author.) I have listened to this book several times over many years. I do think he does a fine job of describing the actual feeling of being depressed, and does a great service by saying it is at bottom simply indescribable, and also incomprehensible by people who have never experienced it. Thus the well-meaning admonitions to 'buck up', 'get a hold of yourself' and 'most people are as happy as they set out to be' are torture to the person suffering from depression.
However, much has been learned about depression since he wrote the book. It's so obvious that he was an alcoholic who went cold turkey in June and was still suffering from the effects of alcohol withdrawal in October, which can take months to subside. Then, to complicate things, he doped himself up with sleeping pills, so his system was flooded with foreign chemicals, replacing one he was adapted to with a new one. The result, a profound inability to function, and depression, would now be a surprise to no one but him.
His attempt to link suicide to sensitive artistic temperaments was more a roll call of alcoholics---Hemingway, Jack London, Poe, etc. There may be a link between all three (sensitive types, suicide, and alcohol), but it's a three-legged stool, and Styron is loath to acknowlege his alcohol use as the third leg. Maybe he feels depression is more romantic than alcoholism, or at least more socially acceptable.
The spectulation about repressed mourning, early death of mother, etc. is not nearly as important as his familial tendency to depression, his drinking, and his pill taking. Since he says the hospital did nothing for him but take away the pills, and he got better, that would seem good evidence for their role in his illness.
In his obituary in 2006 it was mentioned that he had to be hospitalized several more times after the first time described in the book.
In short, read the book to experience, as much as possible for an outsider, what depression 'feels' like, but don't buy the diagnosis of what causes it.
Rating: -
The writing is excellent as you'd expect from Styron. The story short and to the point. It delivers a powerful vision of what extreme depression and suicidal ideation actually feels like. That said, I was a little disappointed somehow. The fact that Styron was a well known writer, living a life that most of us can't relate to, in a period now gone, somehow robbed the book of the power it probably had when it first came out.
Rating: -
This book gives a deep insight into Depression. Knowing that someone can be that "far gone" and come back is so inspiring. A knowledgeable read!
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