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
Treating an identity as an illness invites real illness to make a braver stand.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Identifying oneself with a struggle can amplify the struggle's impact on mental health.
In this quote, Andrew Solomon suggests that when individuals consider their identity—as shaped by personal challenges or societal labels—as an illness, it can lead to a more profound experience of that 'illness.' By acknowledging the pain and complexity of one's identity in this way, it serves to emphasize and possibly exacerbate the mental health struggles tied to that identity. The quote encourages a reflection on how the framing of identity can influence well-being and the experience of adversity.
Themes
IdentityMental HealthStruggleSelf-PerceptionBravery
In practice
Example use cases
During a mental health awareness seminar, to discuss the impact of labels on personal identity.
More from Andrew Solomon
All quotes →I 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.
Andrew SolomonRead
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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