Depression – Symptoms within the Prevailing Attitude
Depression is a major cause of suffering for many many people. It is an isolating condition in which people find that what they once knew about themselves falls away. Feelings of despair, fear, anxiety and overwhelm overtake one. Even the small things in life become very difficult.
The devastating consequences of depression made headlines with the suicide of comedian and actor Robin Williams in August 2014; again raising public awareness about this disorder. According to a study published in 2013, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Canadians are among the biggest users of antidepressants in the world. In North America, depressive disorders are the most common diagnosis encountered through Employee Assistance Programs. The economic impact of mood disorders through stress leave, short-term disability and sick time taken is staggering.
Psychiatry focuses on eliminating the symptoms of depression through pharmacology or cognitive behaviour techniques, in an attempt to reduce its debilitating effects and support the return to daily functioning. These treatments are successful in do that. They do however also eradicate the inherent meaningful suffering hidden in the symbol of the depressive symptoms. St. Augustine, the 5th century theologian who suffered from severe bouts of depression, described the disease not of the body but of the soul, and a mark of the disconnection from God.
Images of Depression – Finding Meaning within a Jungian Perspective
The experience of depression is that it is “a lack” . . . . a lack of life, a lack of connection with the world, a lack of love, a lack of relationship. It is an experience of an immersion into darkness. A person in the grips of this dark mood experiences an isolation that can be too much to bear. Suicide ideation often accompanies these depths of the despair. Depression thus is a retreat of the executive function (i.e. the ego) from the world in all of its forms.
It is categorized as a “mood disorder”. Yet we find light and hope in the origin of these words. The etymology of the word “mood” comes the German word for Mut which also means spirit or soul. The word “disorder” derives from the French to mean out of line and chaotic. Thus, depression reflects a soul that is confused, in chaos, and living through a dark night. It is the soul’s dark night.
The image of the being in a wilderness or a desert often appears in dreams with people who are depression. It is a psychological terrain that is lonely, hostile and inhospitable. There is no water. Life is not able to grow in this terrain as vital life energy is in hiding.
Finding Meaning in the Myth of Demeter and Persephone
The Homeric Myth of Demeter captures very well the levels of depression and, most importantly, the possibility of transformation. The Goddess Demeter is lost in the wilderness as she grieves the loss of her daughter. Kore/Persephone has been abducted into the underworld kingdom of Pluto through the betrayal of her father, Zeus.
The portrayal of Demeter, as she navigates the loss, is an image of what happens in the upper world. i.e. in our conscious life during a depressive episode. Demeter is the Goddess of Grain and agriculture. She is nature, nourishment, and growth,. In giving the gift of agriculture to man, she provides the means of self-sufficiency. After the loss of her daughter, she is lost. She wanders through the land bereft. She does not eat or sleep. She isn’t able to take care of herself. As her despair continues, nothing grows and a famine threatens to destroy humankind. Demeter consumed with longing and mourning is in the grip of “total immersion in wandering grief . . . . ceaselessly calling for that which is lost, never reaching out for the connection and sustenance that is available in the here and now.
Demeter is the depressed person who has no life energy and lost interest in life. The outer life is dry, sterile, arid and isolated. She lives in a barren and lifeless place as she mourns. No life can grow here.
Meanwhile her daughter – the young and innocent child who has life energy – is held prisoner in Hell, the dark foreboding underworld. We do not see her. She is hidden from view. We have no word from her.
Demeter’s mood lifts when she awakens to her authentic feelings as she discovers the betrayal behind her daughter’s abduction. Then Zeus her husband must send Hermes – the god of communication – to negotiate a deal with the Lord of the Underworld for the daughter’s release. Hermes as the messenger between worlds is the mediating force that attempts to link the upper world and the world of Hell as he is sent to negotiate Kore’s release from Hades. She will be free as long as she hasn’t eaten anything from the underworld. However, she had eaten a pomegranate seed and thus became Hades’ bride.
The myth grants access to the riches of story as a possibly of finding meaning in depressive symptoms. We can understand the psychological reality of depression by witnessing Demeter reaction to the loss of her daughter. She is lost without meaning and direction as she adjusts to a new situation. Kore her daughter returns but not the same person that her mother knew. Kore has become Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and has transformed into someone who knows how survive in the darkness of Hell and who can bring to the surface the buried riches.
Spiritual Aspects of Depression
In approaching depression from a spiritual perspective, depression is suffering of a soul that has lost meaning and a connection to the life-giving source within the psyche.
Through the withdraw of life energy, the seeds of new life can be possible. The myth gives us an image of death and resurrection.
If the life force and urge for transformation is present, then we work through our depression in psychoanalysis or therapy toward transformation and a new life.