Depression is the flaw in love. There's no such thing as love without the anticipation of loss. And that specter of despair can be the engine of intimacy.
Andrew SolomonRead
Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Depression stems from our capacity to love and the pain of loss that accompanies it.
This quote by Andrew Solomon highlights the intricate connection between love and depression. It suggests that to truly experience love, we must also be prepared to face the pain of losing that which we cherish, and depression serves as a natural response to that potential loss or despair. This interplay reveals that love brings both joy and sorrow, and that the depth of our emotional experiences is tied to our ability to feel deeply in all aspects of life.
Themes
DepressionLoveDespairLossEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
Using this quote in a mental health awareness campaign to illustrate the emotional complexity of love.
More from Andrew Solomon
All quotes βI don't accept subtractive models of love, only additive ones. And I believe that in the same way we need species diversity to ensure that the planet can go on, so we need this diversity of affection and diversity of family in order to strengthen the ecosphere of kindness.
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While people argue with one another about the specifics of Freud's work and blame him for the prejudices of his time, they overlook the fundamental truth of his writing, his grand humility: that we frequently do not know our own motivations in life and are prisoners to what we cannot understand. We can recognize only a small fragment of our own, and an even smaller fragment of anyone else's, impetus.
Andrew SolomonRead
I believe that words are strong, that they can overwhelm what we fear when fear seems more awful than life is good.
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Then I repeated these words to my spirits: 'Leave me be; give me peace; and let me do the work of my life. I will never forget you.' Something about that incantation was particularly appealing to me. 'I will never forget you'-- as though one had to address the pride of the spirits, as though one wanted them to feel good about being exorcised.
Andrew SolomonRead
Some people are trapped by the belief that love comes in finite quantities, and that our kind of love exhausts the supply upon which they need to draw. I do not accept competitive models of love, only additive ones.
Andrew SolomonRead
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