Posted by jojo on November 6, 2001, at 11:19:02
In reply to Re: Depression and Free Will » jojo, posted by kazoo on November 5, 2001, at 0:37:45
> > Has anyone found that the experience of incapacitating depression has changed their outlook regarding Free Will and Determinism?
>
> Only when I eat eggs.
>
> "Incapacitating depression," as you put it, transcends the need, not to mention "will," to ponder such profundities. So those poor souls with a "certified" clinical depression to the point of incapacitation find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning, much less care about anything else.
>
> Only if I eat eggs.
>
> kazooI don't think so, kazoo. If one can't get out of bed, they can still wonder why they can't, and feel terrible guilt for being so lacking in "character" that they can't get up and have a life like everyone else appears to be having. It appears to be next to impossible to explain the lack of ability to accomplish anything to anyone who has not been through the experience, because almost everyone believes, intuitively, that there IS a little person inside their head that decides what they do, as opposed to what I believe to actually be the case, that what we do is determined by circumstances, and then we tell ourselves a little story, a rationalization, of why we did it. Accepting this relieves much of the guilt and pain accompanying depression. It doesn't make you any better; just allows you to feel less of a person with an extreme failure of character.
Under less incapacitating circumstances, I believe that it is healthy to act as if you have Free Will, but more fruitful and educational, indeed, actually may give you more situational control, to understand others as having their behavior determined.
poster:jojo
thread:13483
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011105/msgs/13583.html