Suicide and Reasons to Live


Ed Hudgins

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Suicide and Reasons to Live
By Edward Hudgins

August 15, 2014 -- The death of entertainer Robin Williams has again brought to public discussion the serious matter of suicide. My colleague Alexander Cohen has penned a reflection that is both personal and philosophical. He asserts, correctly, that if life is a value that we must choose and embrace, death in some cases might be a valid option as well.

But it is worth our trouble to reflect some more on the nature and obligations surrounding this option.

Human life is not a matter of mere survival. Rather, one lives to pursue rational values, to be happy, to flourish. An individual with a painful ailment who finds it impossible to enjoy anything in life—to read, to watch a movie on TV, to listen to music, to have a conversation with loved ones—might have valid reason for deciding that their life offers too little to continue.

Clinical depression

But more suicides are brought on by clinical depression than by a terrible existential situation. The excruciating pain of depression is real. But the cause is something biological and chemical. The individual cannot think straight about their situation not because they choose to be irrational or have failed to take enough courses in logic and not because they are simply lazy and choose not to exercise the will power to focus their minds. Emotions that are extremely difficult to control blind their reason. Thus, while the desire to escape the pain of depression is valid, and suicide would be a quick way out, in such cases suicide is not necessarily a rational decision.

Illusion of worthlessness

Depressed individuals when they are back from the brink describe the general feeling of hopelessness dragging them down—Winston Churchill described his depression as his “black dog.” They also describe a feeling of worthlessness. One might understand an individual who has committed some horrible crime coming the full moral realization of what they did and believing that they deserve to die. But clinically depressed distorts and individual’s apprehension of reality in this most crucial aspect of life: their sense of self-worth.

One can take some comfort when a person in horrible pain passes away; I’ve felt that way when loved ones suffering from cancer finally succumbed. And in the case of someone like Robin Williams who struggled for years with depression, albeit in his case worsened by alcohol and drug abuse, we can at least say they are now free, they suffer no more.

But clearly the best outcome is for clinically depressed individuals to receive treatment, at best with the aid and support of loved ones who value those individuals, so they can go on to live and to flourish. Pharmaceuticals currently help millions. And we can hope that in the future, genetic research will allow for the elimination of the inborn propensity some individuals have toward depression

.

Tragedy for others

Speaking of loved ones, we can also ask about the obligation of depressed individuals to go on living for the sake of those who love and value them. There was no generic moral obligation for Robin Williams to continue to suffer because the millions who loved his work would miss him.

But consider the situation of a father with a wife and young children who, because of clinical depression, commits suicide. That father took on a moral and a legal commitment to care for those children. He would be inflicting terrible, long-lasting pain not only on the children but on the wife whom he loved and valued. Again, in such a case we might take cold comfort in the fact that such a father no longer suffers the pain of clinical depression. But his suicide can only be described as a tragedy, an inflicting on his family of undeserved pain because of a painful biological condition that drives such a father, beyond reason, to suicide.

Individuals don’t have a moral obligation to live for the sake of others. But the foundation and source of the need for morality is to guide us as we seek to live flourishing lives. Let us hope that Robin Williams’s death will raise awareness of the need for individuals who suffer from clinical depression to strive, with the help of loved ones, to overcome their condition just as they would strive to overcome any other illness. That is how life for them will continue to offer values and, indeed, will be the highest value.
----
Hudgins is director of advocacy and a senior scholar at The Atlas Society.

For further information:

David Kelley, “Choosing Life.”

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"In most cases of depression, perhaps all, chemical imbalances in the brain are among the causes, and to that extent depression is outside the realm of purpose, choice, and value that we are concerned with. It is a medical condition that can and should be treated medically..." [Kelley, 'Choosing Life']

Rand fell into a depression after the publication of Atlas Shrugged, “crying nearly every day in the privacy of her apartment.” Burns ascribes this to... “the painful absence of intellectual recognition.” http://www.yaliberty.org/node/12747

She wept, throughout her life, at the world’s refusal to conform to her ideal vision of it... After the book’s publication, she fell into a deep depression and chided herself for not being more like her ideal man. http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/60120/index1.html

"I remember one night, after Atlas was published, she was sitting on the sofa, crying, protesting the state of the world and her place in it, and then she said how much she would hate for John Galt to see her this way, how much she would hate for him to see her miserable or in tears." http://mol.redbarn.org/objectivism/Writing/NathanielBranden/FullContextInterview.html

---------

It makes one wonder how many gifted people are being sabotaged with Prozac nowadays?

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Suicide and Reasons to Live

By Edward Hudgins

August 15, 2014 -- The death of entertainer Robin Williams has again brought to public discussion the serious matter of suicide. My colleague Alexander Cohen has penned a reflection that is both personal and philosophical. He asserts, correctly, that if life is a value that we must choose and embrace, death in some cases might be a valid option as well.

But it is worth our trouble to reflect some more on the nature and obligations surrounding this option.

Human life is not a matter of mere survival. Rather, one lives to pursue rational values, to be happy, to flourish. An individual with a painful ailment who finds it impossible to enjoy anything in life—to read, to watch a movie on TV, to listen to music, to have a conversation with loved ones—might have valid reason for deciding that their life offers too little to continue.

Clinical depression

But more suicides are brought on by clinical depression than by a terrible existential situation. The excruciating pain of depression is real. But the cause is something biological and chemical. The individual cannot think straight about their situation not because they choose to be irrational or have failed to take enough courses in logic and not because they are simply lazy and choose not to exercise the will power to focus their minds. Emotions that are extremely difficult to control blind their reason. Thus, while the desire to escape the pain of depression is valid, and suicide would be a quick way out, in such cases suicide is not necessarily a rational decision.

Illusion of worthlessness

Depressed individuals when they are back from the brink describe the general feeling of hopelessness dragging them down—Winston Churchill described his depression as his “black dog.” They also describe a feeling of worthlessness. One might understand an individual who has committed some horrible crime coming the full moral realization of what they did and believing that they deserve to die. But clinically depressed distorts and individual’s apprehension of reality in this most crucial aspect of life: their sense of self-worth.

One can take some comfort when a person in horrible pain passes away; I’ve felt that way when loved ones suffering from cancer finally succumbed. And in the case of someone like Robin Williams who struggled for years with depression, albeit in his case worsened by alcohol and drug abuse, we can at least say they are now free, they suffer no more.

But clearly the best outcome is for clinically depressed individuals to receive treatment, at best with the aid and support of loved ones who value those individuals, so they can go on to live and to flourish. Pharmaceuticals currently help millions. And we can hope that in the future, genetic research will allow for the elimination of the inborn propensity some individuals have toward depression

.

Tragedy for others

Speaking of loved ones, we can also ask about the obligation of depressed individuals to go on living for the sake of those who love and value them. There was no generic moral obligation for Robin Williams to continue to suffer because the millions who loved his work would miss him.

But consider the situation of a father with a wife and young children who, because of clinical depression, commits suicide. That father took on a moral and a legal commitment to care for those children. He would be inflicting terrible, long-lasting pain not only on the children but on the wife whom he loved and valued. Again, in such a case we might take cold comfort in the fact that such a father no longer suffers the pain of clinical depression. But his suicide can only be described as a tragedy, an inflicting on his family of undeserved pain because of a painful biological condition that drives such a father, beyond reason, to suicide.

Individuals don’t have a moral obligation to live for the sake of others. But the foundation and source of the need for morality is to guide us as we seek to live flourishing lives. Let us hope that Robin Williams’s death will raise awareness of the need for individuals who suffer from clinical depression to strive, with the help of loved ones, to overcome their condition just as they would strive to overcome any other illness. That is how life for them will continue to offer values and, indeed, will be the highest value.

----

Hudgins is director of advocacy and a senior scholar at The Atlas Society.

For further information:

David Kelley, “Choosing Life.”

The phony medical model. It's really just the chicken or the egg. Which is the cause? A chemical-biological imbalance or what caused the imbalance?

Not one word on repressed anger.

As for Robin Williams, not one word on his being diagnosed with Parkinson's.

--Brant

(not a comment on Cohen)

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"In most cases of depression, perhaps all, chemical imbalances in the brain are among the causes, and to that extent depression is outside the realm of purpose, choice, and value that we are concerned with. It is a medical condition that can and should be treated medically..." [Kelley, "Choosing Life"]

"...the last three years of Ayn Rand's life... She began to take antidepressant medication." [Heller, p.405]

She wept, throughout her life, at the world’s refusal to conform to her ideal vision of it... After the book’s publication [Atlas Shrugged], she fell into a deep depression and chided herself for not being more like her ideal man. http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/60120/index1.html

Rand suffered severe depression and bitterness throughout her life. http://www.forbes.com/sites/booked/2010/04/01/booked-bio-who-is-ayn-rand/

As previous biographical accounts have told us, and Burns reiterates, Rand fell into a depression after the publication of Atlas Shrugged, “crying nearly every day in the privacy of her apartment.” Burns, like the rest, ascribes this to various causes: the letdown after the 13-year buildup to publication, her constant use of Benzedrine (prescribed by a doctor), and most of all, “the painful absence of intellectual recognition.” http://www.yaliberty.org/node/12747

Publication of the long-awaited masterwork in 1957 did not bring the world to a grinding halt, and Ms. Rand slid into a terrible depression. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/25/books/the-man-who-loved-ayn-rand.html

And what is Heller's reference for Rand using anti-depressants "the last three years of [her] life"? Only the last link is worth reading. The others are second-hand Heller and Burns. Heller is only second and third-hand scholarship and Burns first and second-hand. Too many degrees of separation.

It's not that Rand didn't have depression problems. I've seen good evidence she was severely depressed after the AS hoopla died down (1960), it's that this here material is undocumented lard up: "severe depression and bitterness throughout her life." "She wept throughout her life . . . ."

The Heller book is so poorly done it should be tossed. Burns's book is much better, especially as she had access to ARI archives. If you must read one, read Burns; not these links.

--Brant

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It's not that Rand didn't have depression problems. I've seen good evidence she was severely depressed after the AS hoopla died down (1960), it's that this here material is undocumented lard up: "severe depression and bitterness throughout her life." "She wept throughout her life . . . ."

--Brant

I revised accordingly and added a little comment of my own:

It makes one wonder how many gifted people are being sabotaged with Prozac nowadays?

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the fact is, life isn't for everyone.

My daughter recently attended an evaluation at the school district's Gifted & Talented office. Waiting to pick her up, I grabbed a scholarly book from the shelf, which I believe was titled An Intense Life (or something like that). Exceptionally bright, creative people experience everything far more deeply than normal people -- they're capable of profound exaltation and deep depression. They are often friendless or shun others, and are typically hypercritical of society. There's a lot of literature about it. http://www.bidmc.org/YourHealth/HolisticHealth/MentalHealth.aspx?ChunkID=14303

Explains Robin Williams and Ayn Rand. The gift of creativity is a curse -- a problem that most people like Ed don't have.

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the fact is, life isn't for everyone.

My daughter recently attended an evaluation at the school district's Gifted & Talented office. Waiting to pick her up, I grabbed a scholarly book from the shelf, which I believe was titled An Intense Life (or something like that). Exceptionally bright, creative people experience everything far more deeply than normal people -- they're capable of profound exaltation and deep depression. They are often friendless or shun others, and are typically hypercritical of society. There's a lot of literature about it. http://www.bidmc.org/YourHealth/HolisticHealth/MentalHealth.aspx?ChunkID=14303

Explains Robin Williams and Ayn Rand. The gift of creativity is a curse -- a problem that most people like Ed don't have.

Another angle on the same lines are studies since the 1970's on "Depressive Realism".

"Depressive realism is a depressing thought...it dictates that those who suffer from depression may in fact be right.

The central conceit here then is that they are depressed not due to a warped view of reality, but due to the fact that they have a more accurate perception of reality".

-----[stanley C Loewen]

There's the rub. If you are depressed -- be happy!

Reminds me of something I read: It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

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Explains Robin Williams and Ayn Rand. The gift of creativity is a curse -- a problem that most people like Ed don't have.

Not a curse. But is sometimes comes with a price.

Ba'al Chatzaf

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Robin Wiliams once discussed depression with interviewer Terry Gross and, imitating a suicide hotline operator, said, "Life isn't for everyone."

In this therapeutic society of ours, every deviation must be corrected, managed, controlled.

But, the fact is, life isn't for everyone.

Stop!

Don't grease anybody's skids out of here!

--Brant

or tell me .0001 percent makes yours a true enough statement for public discourse--not naked by itself, not without caveats

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Sometimes it is obvious that Ed Hudgins's job as a spokesman for The Atlas Society prevents him from speaking his own truth.

Ed is not a liar or a hypocrite.

--Brant

and always struck me as "speaking his own truth"--why that should conflict with TAS I cannot figure

Ed is a classic American positivist

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Michael M. – I’m happy to assure you that I would never write anything that conflicts with my own truth for the sake of the Atlas Society or anyone else. You might note that Alexander Cohen, my TAS colleague who I refer at the start of my piece, has posted in the comments to my piece on the TAS website that he disagrees with me. Wow, open Objectivism, and without some of the nastiness--though not from you!--on this very thread!

I’ll add that I strive first and foremost to understand objective reality, not to distort reality in order to fit it into my philosophical presuppositions. Human behavior is very complex. Clinical depression, unfortunately, figures in the behavior of many people. No thoughtful or honest person can deny this. Sure, Scientologist or fundamentalist Christian might say that individuals are possessed by thetans or Satan, but they are dishonest kooks.

To recognize the reality of such depression is not to say that other factors do not complicate behavior or how individuals deal with such depression. For example, narcissists will dig themselves into a deeper hole. But it is crucial to understand the nature and full context of someone’s situation in order to deal with it. I’ve seen variations among people I’m close to and have done my best to help them out.

I do not believe that observing that sometimes individuals are not always in complete control of their own mindset and attitudes negates the fundamentals of Objectivism. But my goal is to first and foremost be in agreement with objective reality. Others can ultimately decide how to label my beliefs. Whether I’m a “true” Objectivist or not os not my fundamental concern.

Was Ayn Rand clinically depressed? I don’t know. Both Nathaniel and Barbara Branden have described Ayn’s depression after the publication of Atlas and the disgraceful response of many critics. I recall others with firsthand knowledge madding similar observations. So unless there’s compelling evidence that Ayn was kicking back with a smile on her face, glowing with the pride in her achievement during those years, I’ll assume the Brandens are correct.

I discussed with Barbara on several occasions the fact that Rand didn’t seem to be able to live according Roark’s attitudes toward his enemies: “But I don’t think of you.” Barbara answered something to the effect that Rand was human, e.g., that what one considers the appropriate emotional response might not simply well up automatically from one’s soul.

Was Rand clinically depressed? Or was she simply experiencing a huge letdown because she so misjudged the rationality of people and how they would react to Atlas? Or a little of both? Whatever the case might be, I don’t believe it negates her philosophy. But it does suggest that a more realistic understanding of human nature is necessary.

Nathaniel Branden has said many times that his work in psychology was meant, in part, to give individuals the technology to get from where they actually were—not a Galt or Dagny—to where they wanted to be and should be. Too bad that because of the Rand-Branden break Rand was not able to incorporate his later work into the philosophy.

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@Brant

The phony medical model. It's really just the chicken or the egg. Which is the cause? A chemical-biological imbalance or what caused the imbalance?
A lot of people are genetically predisposed to depression. My father was one such person and he committed suicide after suffering from depression for virtually his whole life.I have inherited his tendencies, and so has my daughter, apparently. Though, luckily, we both seem to have much milder forms of it.
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Ed,

I liked your article and basically agree with you.

As an aside, don't forget that Rand wrote about suicide. Gail Wynand was going to kill himself. But in some weird manner I have not been able to grok, his own apathy saved him. He couldn't feel anything.

So that was reason to go on living? Emotional numbness?

How does that work?

You figure it out. I can't so far...

:)

I quip, but at the high point of my addiction, I felt apathy. (Believe me, you don't ever want to feel that.) I would have literally died several times if not for some sliver of fear at the relevant moments. Had I been able to maintain the apathy without those feint surges of fear, in my mind it would have been totally logical for me to end it all.

Michael

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@Brant

The phony medical model. It's really just the chicken or the egg. Which is the cause? A chemical-biological imbalance or what caused the imbalance?
A lot of people are genetically predisposed to depression. My father was one such person and he committed suicide after suffering from depression for virtually his whole life. I have inherited his tendencies, and so has my daughter, apparently. Though, luckily, we both seem to have much milder forms of it.

Depression (it used to be called melancholy in the Old Days) ran in families and even among separated Identical twins. It definitely has a genetic component. It also has an environmental component. High stress can sometimes produce the condition.

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@Brant

The phony medical model. It's really just the chicken or the egg. Which is the cause? A chemical-biological imbalance or what caused the imbalance?
A lot of people are genetically predisposed to depression. My father was one such person and he committed suicide after suffering from depression for virtually his whole life. I have inherited his tendencies, and so has my daughter, apparently. Though, luckily, we both seem to have much milder forms of it.

I admit there is a genetic pre-disposition and that I over-spoke. I am not against the use of anti-depressants, especially to preclude suicide. I'm against the kind of thinking or non-thinking that results in someone adding to his or her problem. The addressable core is victimhood. That = anger = repression of anger = depression. I am not saying that's all there is to it or it's all inclusive. I'm saying the medical (biological) model smothers this important knowledge and approach. The heart of psychiatry is diagnosis then drugs plus the concomitant medical authoritarianism especially magnified for this kind of doctor by the state.

--Brant

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@Brant

The phony medical model. It's really just the chicken or the egg. Which is the cause? A chemical-biological imbalance or what caused the imbalance?

A lot of people are genetically predisposed to depression. My father was one such person and he committed suicide after suffering from depression for virtually his whole life. I have inherited his tendencies, and so has my daughter, apparently. Though, luckily, we both seem to have much milder forms of it.

Roughly, since I'm no expert, I would venture that depression has three components: clinical, cognitive, and 'situational'. Of course the first will bear upon the other two and so appropriate psychiatric care will be essential. Still, drugs shouldn't be seen as a fix alone, I am positive. A, um, "holistic" approach of all components seems the best treatment.

Gary, a tip of the hat to you for your unevading awareness.

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Here is an up-to-date summary by psychiatrist Allan Blumenthal from his book last year:

Psychological depression . . . has many causes. Some are reactions to unhappy life circumstances, and some are the result of underlying psychological conflicts. But we now know that many depressions are primarily physiological in origin. These disorders, known as “clinical depressions,” probably bear a genetic influence. However generated, the symptoms of depression are ultimately mediated through the operations of a complex neuro-endocrine system, the physiology of which is increasingly understood by researchers in the fields of neurophysiology and psychopharmacololgy. Depressions of all types are associated with changes in the brain (chiefly in the basal ganglia, limbic system, and hypothalamus—the centers most relevant to emotions) and in the functioning of the pituitary, thyroid, and adrenal endocrine systems. There is also evidence that depression may lead to physiological changes in the immune system and in circadian rhythm.
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Michael M. – I’m happy to assure you that I would never write anything that conflicts with my own truth for the sake of the Atlas Society or anyone else.

Thanks for the long and heartfelt reply. "Conflict" never entered my mind. I should have been more explicit. Your topical essay was coldly rationalistic and lacking in the passion you often put into your work. To me, it read like something to be said from the Objectivist point of view. There was no blood in your adjectives. On the other hand, your reply was honest, open, emotional, and therefore highly and deeply motivated to be logical in its delivery.

Just sayin'...

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Michael M. - I intentionally kept my description clinical because I wanted to get people to look at this serious matter without their thinking clouded by emotions generated by ideology. I find some Objectivists and libertarians to be overly rationalistic, meaning they ignore the complexity of human behavior. Remember that Rand herself might not have appreciate that Frank O'Connor in old age was suffering if not from early dementia then some form of neurological decay. But I'm glad in my reply to you I was able to revert the my usual Ed-Hudgins self!

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Folks. If going on living is a choice (with humans anyway) then so is not going on living.

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