The cost of depression: Art and Culture
As is so unfortunately the case, the method of thinking about mental health in contemporary times, is to couch the cost of depression and other related mental health disorders in terms of GDP or the cost to a nation in terms of financial burden. However, through doing so we forget about the lost potential of the individual as they struggle to adapt to their depression in day to day life.
Prevalence
According to the Office for National Statistics around 1 in 6 of adults report moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Depression is marked by feelings of low mood, low self-esteem, having no motivation and feelings of irritability or having no enjoyment in life. Having been a sufferer of depression for about twenty years, I am more than familiar with my own specific brand of depression and the ways in which it manifests.
Personal History
I am currently studying for a BSc in forensic psychology from the Open University, in addition I write and have published a novel. However, there are times when a dark malaise falls upon me and the prospect of getting out of bed or even seeing another person fills me with dread. Since I am also a carer for my wife who has cancer, this can take an additional toll on my mental health. Occasionally I find that I can’t find any enjoyment in hobbies that previously served as nothing less than as my raison d’etre.
Rossini and opera
This is actually not that unusual, let us take the opera composer Rossini for a dramatic example. Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) was one of the predominant opera buffa (comedic) composers and composer of the well-known opera ‘The Marriage of Figaro’. Though often considered a rather lazy composer, this so-called lazy composer would compose 39 operas during his lifetime. However, Rossini’s abrupt operatic and musical abandonment has been hypothesised as being in part due to the decline of his mental health and depression. The true toll of depression in robbing the world of numerous works of art, literature and cultural progress is unknown.
Conclusion
I’m often tormented by the idea of the lost progress both scientifically and artistic from the bigotry and misogyny of both former ages and even this present day. In the same way, I worry that a focus on the financial implications of mental health undervalue the potential of the individual to contribute to the soul of the human species when not plagued by mental health issues.
When we think of mental health, perhaps we can slip the confines of the capitalist mental handcuffs we are all born into, and consider the human element too and the lost contribution to culture.
