William Styron, preeminent author of Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner, helped bring the subject of depression out of the shadows and addressed the stigma still attached to it twenty-three years later. It is still considered one of the most vivid personal accounts of this debilitating illness.
From The Guardian UK, 2011:
“Twenty years ago today, the American novelist William Styron’s short but devastating memoir about his depression and near-suicide, Darkness Visible, was published in the UK. In it, he described depression as “a disorder of mood, so mysteriously painful and elusive in the way it becomes known to the self – to the mediating intellect – as to verge close to being beyond description.” ~Chris Cox
Read more here.
Kate Gallagher says
I do recall reading this memoir shortly after it was release and thought it was profoundly illuminating. Research seems to be split on the subject of the subject of active alcoholism (by which I mean alcoholics who are not in recovery), but I do wonder if that was not a factor in Styron’s case. Interesting that his suicidal impulses may have be triggered by medication — that particular cocktail may be off the dispensary shelves but it seem like half the pharmaceutical ads on tv cite suicidal impulses or thoughts and/or new or worsening depression as a potential side effect. Anyway, thanks for sharing this revisited piece on Darkness Visible — very timely.