So depression has been calling my name lately. Lurking, although not fully present.
I’ve been working through it with various practices (which I’ll share in a post if anyone’s interested) and reading about the spiritual gifts of these dark nights of the soul. Here are some excerpts from a chapter on despair in the book Healing Through the Dark Emotions: The Wisdom of Grief, Fear and Despair by psychotherapist Miriam Greenspan.
Depression, Greenspan says, is “unalchemized despair.” She points out that only in the last 60 years or so “have we started to consider depression as a medical condition.”
“In a culture that condemns despair, it’s hard to look at this emotion in a way that honors its dignity, power and wisdom. Viewing it as an illness beyond our control, we don’t have to feel blame for it. This lessens despair’s stigma and gives us some hope.”
“From the standpoint of almost every culture and time except this era in the United States, the psychiatric approach to despair would be seen as naïve or nutty. The idea that only cheeriness is normal has a distinctly Brave New World feel. It’s no wonder that despair, the darkest of the dark emotions, is virtually taboo in our society. Feeling this bad in a feel-good culture is transgressive; it goes against the grain in a culture of denial.”
I’m not afraid to be transgressive, ha.
“Women, the elderly, the disenfranchised and artists, among the most vulnerable to despair, might have something to contribute to the culture from out of their despair, rather than in spite of it. What gifts lie in these darker realms? And what about confronting the denied darkness of our culture and society.”
What if instead of just focusing on our medical history and length of symptoms, psychiatrists asked, “How is your depression connected to anger? Is there any relationship between your depression and things in your life that make you feel disempowered or without a voice?”
Greenspan writes “More than grief and fear, (despair) has a moral and social dimension that calls us to pay attention to and make meaning out of human suffering. Enter this dark night of the soul, insists the voice of despair. Look at the world’s pain without your usual protections…If you can bear your way through this night with patience, you will be moved to a muscular faith that has looked into the heart of darkness and emerged to affirm life.”
Greenspan illustrates the transformative process through stories of her own and her clients’ journeys through despair. Facing the anguish from her young daughter’s serious medical condition, for example, Greenspan allowed her grief to flow and entered into a deeper felt connection within the web of life of which she and her daughter are a part.
“Despair invites us to journey into the fertile dark. This is no trip to Tuscany where we walk the vernal hillsides watching the sun’s light on the landscape. It’s a journey to the dark inner core of our banished selves and our failures to create a humane world.”
“It comes with an urgent call to grieve our losses” our lost dreams and to “re-examine the meaning of our lives.”
“Transform yourself or be damned, the voice of despair seems to say.”
What do you think?