Subject: Re: Despair Redux
From: David Welch (welchfam@GTE.NET)
Date: Mon Nov 15 1999 - 01:28:14 EST
Marcus Smith wrote:
> 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?
SK writes:
'For it must be observed that in a certain sense not even all who say
they are in despair always are so. One may affect despair, and one may
make a mistake and confuse despair with all sorts of transitory
dejection or grief which pass away without coming to the point of
despair. However, the physician of souls does regard these states also
as forms of despair. He perceives very well that this is affectation --
but precisely this affectation is despair. He perceives very well that
this dejection etc. does not mean much -- but precisely this fact, that
it does not mean much, is despair.' (_The Sickness Unto Death_, Part I,
Section II)
It seems to me that SK sees depression as a sort of counterfeit of
despair. Perhaps he is saying that our ordinary depressions and
anxieties -- no less than our ordinary amusements and preoccupations --
are simply ways of dodging the encounter with despair. I'm not sure.
The last sentence in the above-quoted passage is a tricky one!
Dave Welch
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