v Yerushalmi Professor Thompson English 2150-B 30 April 2014 Research Paper: Final Copy A Psychological Examination of a Self-Destruction It’s most likely that every sensible person living in this world has experienced some sort of mild depression, despair, and sadness at some point in their life. As human beings, it is human nature to cope with our short-lived emotional problems. Sadness is an appropriate, normal human emotion for all the numerous situations we encounter daily. However, some people are unable to emerge from such problematic feelings due to chemical imbalances in the brain, which is considered to be a critical factor in what causes major depression. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, major depression is a mental illness that “interferes with one’s ability to work, sleep, study, eat and enjoy life.” Additionally, the Mental Wellness Today magazine states that such symptoms are “typically felt over a period of time by feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy.” My research paper focuses on the aspect of what factors contribute to the mental development of an individual based on the classic debate of nature (the biological or genetic makeup of a person) versus nurture (the way one was taught, and the environment in which he or she grew up). Moreover, my paper will consist on the life of Ernest Hemingway, who is considered to be one of the most significant and popular American authors of the twentieth century, as claimed by the European Graduate School. I will also be analyzing the reason why Hemingway suffered immensely from depression as well as his dependence on alcohol use. Documentation of well-known facts and research reported from leading psychologists and scholars establish credibility o... ... middle of paper ... ...ersation at a café during a crisis point in their relationship. After the couple got off the train, they decided that they should have something to drink when the man suggested they should perhaps order beer, emphasizing “Two big ones.” The couple could have ordered any drink, so it is important to pay keen attention to why the author, Hemingway, decided to incorporate alcohol into his short story. Maybe Hemingway wanted his readers to think that the couple was going through emotional problems and beer was the solution to help cope with them. As we see with this particular couple by reading the text, we begin to understand the woman depended on drinking to cope with her troubles. When the girl did not want to speak anymore to her partner, she asked the waitress for another beer. As we now know about Hemingway, such a mechanism relates to the way he lived his life.
Throughout the story, Hemingway has the couple order and consume alcohol whenever their conversation gets to a point of causing one or both of them discomfort. The couple drinks alcohol at the story’s beginning. Settling in at the table, the prospect of facing each other for forty minutes and having to make conversation spooks them into ordering drinks before they do anything else new. They spend the first third of the story dancing around discussing the pregnancy without ever directly mentioning it. They are trying to avoid a decision they need to make about the pregnancy. The alcohol is also being used as a way to change the subject. When they start thinking about bringing up the subject while sitting together, they order another drink and talk about the “white elephants”
Depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how a person conducts him/herself, and the way he/she think. Depression may include anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, manic depressions. People with a depressive illness cannot merely ‘pull themselves together’ and get better. About 5% of the population will have some form of a mental illness at some point in their lives. Half of these people will also have a substance abuse
Depression is an illness within itself that affects the “whole body”. (Staywell,1998) The body, feelings, thoughts, and behavior are all immensely altered when someone is depressed. It is not a sign of personal weakness, or a condition that can be wished or willed away. For some people depression is just temporary, but for others it can last for weeks, months and even years.
Depression is a mental illness, which affects millions of Americans each year. Currently there are many prescription drugs, called anti-depressants that have been proven to successfully treat it. The causes of depression are somewhat of a medical enigma, however, it is known that depression is associated with a change in the brains chemistry involving the function of neurotransmitters (Reichert). This chemical change occurs in healthy brain’s, which experience sadness, but ends after the unpleasant stimulus is removed. In people suffering from depression this chemical change does not correspond to any particular stimulus. Symptoms of depression are often incapacitating and include severe and extended sadness, feelings of worthlessness, feelings of emptiness, irritability and anxiety (Reichert, Spake).
Depression is considered a mental disorder that can lead an individual to commit suicide, experiment fatal risk that can injure his or her life. Furthermore, an individual feeling depressed lacks motivation to do anything progressive with his or her life. With that said, these individuals sometime gives up interest in activities that were once enjoyable, gets in a phase were he or she loses appetite, begins to overeat, loses concentration on what he or she is trying to complete, and becomes indecisiveness. Moreover, depression is a condition that makes an individual feel miserable, have no motivation to any activity that can influence his or her views, actions, welfare. Furthermore, depressed individuals at times may feel sad, apprehensive, desperate, destitute, useless, awkward, short-tempered, and agitated. In addition, the melancholy of depression is categorized by a greater concentration and length that is attached to severe symptoms. According to Wedding & Corsini (2014) states, “Physical disease, severe and acute stress, and chronic stress area also precipitating factors” (Pp. 240) of an individu...
One of the many human behaviors seen in literature is alcoholism. It is known that many writers used alcohol and sometimes abused its consumption to get “inspiration” during the process of writing. Ernest Hemingway is one of many alcoholic writers. In a letter he wrote to Ivan Kashkin, a Russian translator and critic in 1935, he explains his love of alcohol: “… I have drunk since I was
Hemingway uses drinking, the hillsides, and a railroad track between the two hills to help convey his theme. The beer in this story is used to represent the couple's usual recreational activity to that they do together. Their recreational activity bothers the girl because "that's all [they] do … look at things and try new drinks." This gives the reader some suspicion that the girl has grown tired of doing the same things over and over again and would like to do something different, like getting married and starting a family instead of goofing off all the time. She wants to stop behaving like an adolescent girl and become a woman. These desires and feelings show that the girl is ready and desiring a change, however her male partner doesn't seem at all interested in changing his ways.
Major depression, in itself, is a debilitating mental disorder that negatively impacts most or all aspects of a sufferer’s life and often times can even lead to suicide. Just to give a few numbers, at least 1 million people worldwide every year take their own life (Hawton and Heeringen 1372-81), half of which are caused by the possession and improper or unsuccessful treatment of major depression (Chehil and Kutcher 30-33). In light of these dark statistics, the benefits and limitations of the main treatments for major depression, antidepressants and psychotherapy, are not only worth investigation, but with thousands of lives on line, vital to the human race. However, to take it further, there is much to be said of human nature in general as it relates to how people respond to the biological treatment of antidepressants as opposed to the cognitive and sociocultural treatment of psychotherapy. Is it possible that the various symptoms of sadness and hopelessness characteristic of major depression can be cured simply by balancing the chemical messengers in charge of happiness and motivation in the brain or must the need to be perceived and understood through therapy be satisfied? Are we, as humans, simply biological machines, or is there something more?
Hemingway illustrates one of his elements of writing, omission, by providing two waiters and their exchange of speech and actions with each other and their customer, the old man. By doing so, he provides all of the information for readers to create an assumption about the individual’s traits; the saintly and even wicked. In the story we are given a scene with the old drunken man and the younger waiter. The old man asks for another brandy while pointing to his empty glass. The younger of the two waiters brashly began his dialogue with “Finished,” he said, speaking with that omission of syntax stupid people employ when talking to drunken people or foreigners. “No more tonight. Close now.” “Another,” said the old man. “No. Finished.” The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head. The old man stands to leave, counts his tab, pays for his brandy, even leaves a tip for the waiters, and then begins to walk away with dignity even for his drunken stupor. (153-154) In this passage the reader is provided with several concepts that help to create the depictions of the old man and the younger waiter. Foremost, the reader is struck with the incivility of the old man; but, before he leaves the café one is forced to become a sympathizer for the fact that ...
Depression is defined as "a state of despondency marked by feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness" (Coon, 2001). Some people can mix up depression with just having the blues because of a couple of bad days or even weeks. It is already said that depression affects about one sixth of the population or more (Doris, Ebmeier, Shajahan, 1999). Depression can happen in any age range from birth to death. The cause of depression is still obscure and becoming clear that a number of diverse factors are likely to be implicated, both genetic and environmental. Some causes are leading stressful lives, genetic factors, a previous depressive episode, and the personality trait neuroticism (Doris, et al., 1999).
By illustrating the manner in which the old man regarded alcohol, it illustrates their solace and need for companionship. The alcohol served as the old man’s companion and he wished to spend the night drinking without thinking about any other thing. As the story develops, the waiters start a conversation that expands the details on the old man. This man lived and survived under the sole care of his niece (Hemingway 1). To begin with, the writer fails to include the children and wife of the old man in order to help develop ...
Depression is an equal opportunity disorder, it can affect any group of people with any background, race, gender, or age. Depression is a sneak thief that slips quietly and gradually into people’s lives - robbing them of their time, and their focus. At first, depression may be undetectable, but in the long run a person could become so weighed down that their life may feel empty and meaningless. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who commits suicide is depressed, but majority of people who commits suicide do so during a severe depressive episode. There are over 300 million people in the world today who suffer from depression. Depression has affected people for a long as records have been kept. It was first called out by the famous Greek philosopher Hippocrates over 2,400 years ago. Hippocrates called it “melancholia”. Many times we think of depression as one disorder alone, when in fact there are many different types of depression. The different types of depression are major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, atypical disorder, adjustment disorder, and depressive personality disorder. All types of depression share at least one common symptom. It is commons from the person who suffers from any form of depression to feel an unshakable sadness, anxious, or empty mood. Major depressive disorder also known as unipolar depression or recurrent depressive disorder is the most severe depressive disorder out of all of the depressive in my estimation. Major depressive disorder is a condition in which affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping, eating and general health. It is important to emphasize that we can understand the mechanics of this disorder and how it affects people with major depressive disorder.
Depression is much more common than most people think. Because it is essentially an invisible illness and is largely in the mind, it is difficult to correctly diagnose it and most people suffer for months, years, or even decades with depression. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines depression as “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide.” Most medical definitions are able to explain what happens and why it does, but after carefully examining this one, we only notice that it explains what happens, but not why. Usually, the symptoms of an illness are...
In terms of drinking, the author uses it a means of showing just how much the two were not keen on having a meaningful discussion of their problems and how to solve them. Throughout the story as the two are waiting for the train, the author points out that they are both drinking alcohol as if they are trying to avoid the important discussions that they were having. As soon as the two set their foot in the station, they order large beers with the hope that drinking will take as much of their time as possible and would not give them the chance to communicate. The lack of commitment in the conversation about how to deal with the white elephant or the baby is shown when the girl requests to order more alcohol just to avoid having that discussion. The reader can also get the sense that the two are also drinking to forget about other problems that they seem to have throughout their relationship. This is depicted when the girl points out that the two do not really engage in other activities apart from the tasting out of new alcoholic drinks. One can also get the view that as a result of the drinking and the lack of communication between the two, the future is not that far for them and that they are bound to lead separate ways. This is shown as they separate when the girl is drinking with another
Depression is a mental illness that needs to be treated like any other sickness. More than 17 million Americans are victims of depression (Wolff 6). People don’t view depression as a serious disorder, most assume it will go away with time. Depression is a mental illness in which one is overwhelmed with sadness, loss of appetite, acts of being unsocial, and tiredness (Dudley 14). The most serious side effect of depression is suicide; an irreversible act that a depressed person can rationalize as the only answer for happiness. The science behind depression is neurotransmitters in one’s brain bind to neurons to communicate; depressed individuals have too few transmitters (Dudley 9). Neurotransmitters such as serotonin which carries