(TV) On a minor note...

["Emilie T. Hsu" <ehsu@mindspring.com>]

Don't really like Camus's writing -- though I think he may agree with you.  Sartre is a great writer -- but crappy philosopher.  In any case, if one wants to kill oneself, don't rely on any book (or role model for that matter)!  Not even Boethius or Socrates (who mused, at the end of Plato's Apology -- here we go, you to live, and I to die, who has the better lot, none really knows).

Scott -- opinions on suicide vary depending on culture and history, so I would say that the medical analysis is useless.  Suicide is so stigmatized that it is considered to be an illness -- maybe some of those people actually think that life on medication is just not worth living.  How can we cast them any stone?  And why should we, we don't live their lives, if it's a crappy life, why should they be marginalized for making a rational choice?

As Boethius said:
...
Death would be happy if it spared the glad
But heeded invocations from the wretch.
...

What you indicated is that there is medical evidence that chemical imbalance is the cause of most or all cases of depressions, and depression is the only cause of suicides.  So from that you infer that all suicides are caused by depression and hence by chemical imbalances.  Here is where you and I disagree -- you can't prove the reverse link, that all suicides are caused by chemical imbalances.  While it may be true that chemical imbalance causes depression and depression could cause suicide -- this does not mean that suicide is only caused by chemical imbalance.  Say, you are "chemically balanced" but just lost the one and only thing that has ever mattered and would ever matter in your life, one of the rational choices is for you to opt out of a meaningless life.  I can think of many other examples -- in fact, to think of it, I can think of very very few things that make life actually worth living -- not that I am advocating suicides, it's a personal choice -- not necessarily an illness.

Minority today, perhaps, but one day... 

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2004 15:14:21 -0400
From: "Scott Simpson" <SSimpson@nyc.rr.com>
Subject: RE: (TV) Death would be happy if it spared the glad

You're in the minority on this one Emily, the strong body of medical
evidence indicates chemical imbalances and disorders are in most if not all
cases of depression and histories of suicide attempts.  Those conditions can
be managed with the right balance of psychotropics.

However there are those who are never diagnosed and those who just happen to
have a real crappy George Bailey kind of day.

Maybe you need stop reading Camus and Sartre and stick with Tati.

Scott, NYC

BTW, not a slur -- you know I love all things French.
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