5/28/2023 0 Comments The midday demon![]() ![]() ![]() In good spirits, some love themselves and some love others and some love work and some love God: any of these passions can furnish that vital sense of purpose that is the opposite of depression. Medications and psychotherapy can renew that protection, making it easier to love and be loved, and that is why they work. Love, though it is no prophylactic against depression, is what cushions the mind and protects it from itself. It is the aloneness within us made manifest, and it destroys not only connection to others but also the ability to be peacefully alone with oneself. When it comes, it degrades one's self and ultimately eclipses the capacity to give or receive affection. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair. ![]() Solomon opens the book with his own highly personal thesis about the nature of depression: “Depression is the flaw in love. The Noonday Demon won the 2001 National Book Award and was a finalist for the 2002 Pulitzer Prize. Drawing on his own experiences, Solomon attempts to advance a comprehensive description of depression, from cultural and medical perspectives. The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression is a 2001 work of non-fiction and memoir by American author Andrew Solomon. ![]()
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