The man would seek professional help, because, in the twenty-first century, he would recognize his propensities as symptoms-evidence of a psychological problem.īut when Søren Kierkegaard underwent these experiences in the Denmark of the eighteen-forties they had a different meaning. The goal would be to get him back to normal, as the world defines “normal”: able to take pleasure in life, to form relationships, to meet his obligations as a family member, friend, and citizen. He would start seeing a therapist and might be prescribed medication. If this happened today-say, in Denmark, the standard example of a rational modern society-the man would sooner or later end up in a psychiatrist’s office, where he would probably be given a diagnosis of depression or bipolar disorder. His activity is so relentless that, in a few short years, he has accumulated many volumes’ worth of manuscripts. He abandons the career for which he has been studying for ten years and holes up in his apartment, where a kind of graphomania compels him to stay up all night writing at a frantic pace. For no apparent reason, he breaks up with the woman everyone thought he was going to marry-not because he loves someone else but out of a sudden conviction that he is incapable of marriage and can only make her miserable. Imagine an educated, affluent European in his late twenties, seemingly one of fortune’s favored, who suffers from crippling feelings of despair and guilt.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |