Despair Redux


Subject: Despair Redux
From: Marcus Smith (marcus@LOYNO.EDU)
Date: Sun Nov 14 1999 - 16:34:03 EST


I liked the comments about the SK epigraph in The Moviegoer, but have a
few additional questions.

First, has anyone checked the context of the quote in The Sickness Unto
Death? How does SK get to this assertion?

Second, the claim ("the specific character of despair is precisely
this: it is unaware of being despair") is a rhetorical box of the "double
bind" variety. If I say, well, yes, I am aware of my despair--but on a
cool fall afternoon with a potroast in the oven, well, my despair is
tolerable--then I open myself to the charge that I really don't understand
"despair."

Third, and related to my second point: what is the precise difference
between despair and depression? Is despair a form of deep depression? Or
is despair cognitive and depression emotional?

Finally, I wonder if anyone wants to reopen a discussion we had a couple
of years ago about the connection of depression/despair and
chemicals? Are the anti-depressants (Prozac and its now numerous
offspring) also anti-despairants?

Marcus Smith
Department of English
Loyola University
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
Office: 504-865-2481; Fax 504-866-1966



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