The pandemic, if not over, is at least controlled; those wise enough to have been vaccinated can at last venture about without a mask; those foolish enough to avoid vaccination are lucky that they're not lying under death's mask. I'm sanguine about the course of the pandemic--sure, other variants might still arise, but vaccines can be developed quickly since the variants would be genetically related. Besides, we already have much better treatments for those who contract covid, and even better treatments are probably on the way.
Very, very serious problems, however, remain. Climate Change, the volatile war in Ukraine, etc. The subject of this little essay, however, is a different plague: the mental health crisis which is proving to be just as contagious as the SARS-CoV 2 virus and just as deadly.
That there is a mental health crisis in this country there can be no doubt. The pandemic lockdown has affeted negatively the education of the young. The resultant lack of socialization, a primary cause of mental illness. has increasd the anxiety level among the young. Suicides, deaths, and injuries due to gun violence have risen as well. Although the suicide rate among adults has decreased somewhat, I have my doubts regarding the accuracy of this statistic. Deaths from the opioid crisis and addiction in general have certainly increased, and are not usually counted as suicides, although an unknown number of them certainly are. There has been a notable rise in suicide among African Americans, although the rates for white males and Native American males are still very much higher..
Another important factor is an inadequate supply of mental health services. Many psychiatrists, for instance, have opted out of Medicare and other insurances, because of what they consider to be inadequate reimbursement. This means that a large number of middle income and poorer persons are left untreated. There is also the stigma factor. My wife has had many patients who do not follow through with a mental health referral, because one or both parents insist that their child is not 'crazy.' In addition, if mental health treatment is part of a child's record, some parents fear that this might limit their child's opportunites in the future--which is too often the case.
Shakespeare's genius for creating vivid characters is unprecedented; no writer in the past four hundred years has come even close to his achievment. His use of soliloquy to express what a character is thinking is done with such aplomb that the late critic Harold Bloom attributes 'The Invention of the Human' to him. His characters often seem more alive, more psychologically profound than we are.
What was Shakespeare's view of depression, a very common aspect of mental illness then, and, especially, now?
2. Antonio, The Other Merchant of Venice
Perhaps the first and maybe even the best example of the mystery of depression is found in the character of Antonio, the other merchant of Venice. The play begins with Antonio saying the following:
It wearies me, you say it wearies you,
But how I caught it, found it, or came by it
What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
I am to learn.
And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself.
Not only do the above lines reveal with few words a very human individual, they also tersely and profoundly describe depression. Mood is still very mysterious, and I think ito will remain mysterious, perhaps forever. For all moods are part of consciousness, and consciousness, as the philosopher scientist David Chalmers asserts, presents a very hard problem indeed. Activities of the brain and moods are undoubtedly closely related, but how these result in conscious feelings is a mystery indeed.
Antonio's friends display no hint of understanding the internal nature of depression. They attribute Antonio's dark mood to external events, such as business worries. When one of them says that Antonio may be feeling sad because he has 'too much respect upon the world,' he replies,
A stage where every man must play a part
And mine a sad one.
This view occurs several times in Shakespeare, most notably in Jacques's famous soliloquy in As You LIke It. (Jacques, by the way, is a moody pessimist/depressive.) It also occurs in philosophical Hinduism; you are not the doer, teaches Advaita Hinduism. You, as an individual, an embodiment of maya or illusion, have a part in the play of life, but you are essentially the Self, the author and spectator of what occurs upon the stage. Identify with the Self, your true nature, and relax, problema resuelto.
Here we have a possible indication of the evolutionary purpose of depresssion. It makes the depressive more ruminative; this pensivity often leads to a deeper insight into the nature of reality.
That depression often leads to a deeper understanding of life there can be no doubt. I will now quote the first stanza of one of Goethe's most famous poems, Harfenspieler:
Wer nie die kummervolle Nächte
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass,
Der kennt Euch nicht, ihr himmlishen Mächte!
(He who has never eaten his bread in tears, he who never sat crying on his bed through sorrowful nights, does not know you, you heavenly powers!)
Too much of a good thing, though, is a very bad thing indeed.
3. 'It wearies me, you say it wearies you'
In Act IV the conflict has come to a head. Antonio had agreed to put up a pound of his flesh as surety for the loan of 2,000 ducats from Shylock. His ships, however, on which he counted on receiving enough money to pay back the loan, have all sunk. Antonio is now penniless and is unable to pay. His friends have gathered money to save him, but Shylock refuses; he wants, literally, Antonio's heart. Everyone is desperate to find a solution. Antonio, however, states the following:
Make no more offers, use no other means,
But with all brief and plain conveniency
Let me have judgement and the Jew his will.
Act IV, S. 1, lines 80-84
"Let me have judgement!' Antonio is not frightened by the prospect of death, he seems to welcome it. I think he uses the word 'judgement' here not only as referring to Shylock's revenge, but primarily to self-judgement. He is weary of his depression, and weary of the effect it has on others. Antonio has thus passed from depression to suicidal depression. After Portia defeats Shylock, and Antonio's life is saved, he thereupon thanks everyone--rather perfunctorily, I think. Later, he advises his friend to give Portia (disguised as a man) the ring which his friend had promised never to take off his finger. At no point does he rejoice that his life has been saved. Joie de vivre and Antonio seem to have nothing in common. Then we hear from Antonio no more. I get the impression that Antonio will soon resume similar words to express himself as he did at the begininng of the play. For depressives, good news is not really good news, and bad news is that which is expected.
Note: My edition of the bard's works, The Norton Shakespeare, correctly states that the reason for Antonio's melancholy is never given. The editor states: "In productions, directors often imply that it results from au unrequited romantic attachement to Bassanio." In my opinion, while Shakespeare is modern, he is not fashionably modern. Male friendship in Shakespeare's time included exaggerated terms of endearment. That Anonio declares his love for Bessanio doesn't mean he is a homosexual, or even a closet homosexual. If such desires exist, Antonio seems totally unaware of them. I think it would be better to take Antonio at his word: his chronic sadness is a ineffable mystery to him, The chronicity of his depressions seems to indicate that he felt sad perhaps even before he knew Bassanio. How else can we interpret Anonio's low-key reaction to Shylock's defeat?
4. Antonio
As one who has admittedly been 'acquainted with the night,' it is not surprising, at least to me, that I would write a poem on the issue of melancholy. Mood is still very much a mystery!
Antonio in Jersey City
What humor in me sours humor in me?
Has science really proven Plato wrong?
A mind chained to defective flesh, change
Ever making me less? Is sadness just
Quicker uptake of neurotransmitters?
Am I just a thing thought up by thoughtless
Evolution? Self a sad computer, stuff? If all
Is matter, no gods; materialism isn't a psalm.
Do things sing? Why do I sometimes feel
Hopelessly, haplessly, horribly, harmfully
Wrong?--After mindful exercise, forty munutes
Later: How can complex things make choices?
If I'm just flesh, what happens when I die?
Yesterday's coffee grounds have been discarded.
Flow, endorphins! What still pins mindbody down?
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