Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) By William Styron

Although beautifully written, Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron is not a book I picked up for pleasure reading.  I read it on the recommendation of a close friend who thought it would help me understand some of what he has gone through in his life.  The book details Styron’s personal experience with depression. 

The book is alarming in that it forces readers to go back over their lives and examine how many times we’ve known people who have faced this crisis while we as “friends” have turned the other way, not wanting to recognize it, rather on talk about it.  Many questions came to my mind.  In my case, I now can recognize the reality that three people in my immediate circle of friends, and at least one relative, have not only contemplated suicide, but have actually attempted it.  These are not unknown details to me, yet how have I failed to tabulate that statistic?  How many others have dealt with clinical depression undiagnosed, or without it advancing to suicide or attempted suicide?  How many instances am I still unaware of?

Is my group of friends an unrepresentative sample, or do all of us have our collective head in the ground on this taboo subject?

 

William Styron is a Pulitzer Prize winning author whose major works include Sophie’s Choice and The Confessions of Nat Turner. When he first wrote about his mental breakdown and hospitalization it was for publication in Vanity Fair magazine in an attempt to break the public silence on the subject. Styron felt confined by the magazine format however, and made the decision to fully tell his story in a book; while still short at 85 pages, it accomplishes its wake-up call.

A word of caution for readers, if you are looking for a definitive answer, there is none.  Part of the difficulty with this illness is that there does not seem be a solitary “cause” of clinical depression. Although many (not all) cases have a relation to a traumatic life event, the nature of the trauma is not necessarily known, and when it is known, not even remotely universal.  But if you are looking for some understanding on what your friends may be going through, or have gone through, then Darkness Visible is an excellent start.  Then you can ask them.