From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp-lib.org)
Date: Sun Jul 16 2000 - 05:41:49 MDT
> It is my opinion that depression never killed anybody.
Sounds pretty omniscient to me. How would you ever find out if it had,
with an opinion like that stuck in the way?
> In general,
> suicide is the treatment of choice for those who are afraid to
> openly express intense rage and whose self-pity motivates a
> desire to inflict the punishment of guilt on selected survivors.
Fah. Mush words like "in general" after such a bold lead?
I think Durkheim had a few things right about it. I'm assuming you've
read Durkheim and can refute his notions handily, right?
Here's a hint: we have no way of *knowing* how many
car-hits-bridge-abutment accidents every year are "really" suicides. The
stats could be skewed toward the more florid cases, where your
procrustean pronouncements might ship a little less water. And Freud and
Jung are matching period poets, of seminal artistry, but hardly the
final word on any matter.
> At any rate, we may suppose that at least some exogenous
> depressions are a phase in a process of psychic reconstruction.
> Robert M. Owen
Yes, we may. but why pick out exogenous ones for attention? Is this just
a trompe l'oeil of the old "that which does not kill me makes me
stronger" boosterism?
Cordially,
MMB
(I seem to be back...)
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