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Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness

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Author: William Styron
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$11.95~~
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Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.3

ISBN: 0679736395
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.85270092
EAN: 9780679736394
ASIN: 0679736395

Publication Date: January 8, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Editorial Reviews:

Amazon.com Review
In 1985 William Styron fell victim to a crippling and almost suicidal depression, the same illness that took the lives of Randall Jarrell, Primo Levi and Virginia Woolf. That Styron survived his descent into madness is something of a miracle. That he manages to convey its tortuous progression and his eventual recovery with such candor and precision makes BDarkness Visible/B a rare feat of literature, a book that will arouse a shock of recognition even in those readers who have been spared the suffering it describes.

Product Description
A work of great personal courage and a literary tour de force, this bestseller is Styron's true account of his descent into a crippling and almost suicidal depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.

Customer Reviews: Read 95 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Great read December 21, 2008
Very pleased with this book. Certainly, a single perspective on depression, but not too polarized.

4 out of 5 stars

How melancholia entered the life of a great writer December 9, 2008
This is a very little book, just a long essay really, but it has a big impact. What triggered my reading of it was an essay in The New Yorker by Styron's daughter Alexandra, recalling her father. She described him as being one of the originators (or perhaps prisoners?) of the image of the hard-drinking, masculine, witty writer. He had many friends who were famous artists, and they spent time at the family's rambling houses in western Connecticut and Martha's Vineyard. He had been well known before the release of Sophie's Choice, but that book made him world famous.br /br / Still, all was not well in the mind of this popular and very successful author. At some point in the 1980s, he began to develop a distaste for alcohol, and over the following months was plunged into a deep depression, something that had never happened to him previously. The book alternates between personal recollections of his illness, discussions of the medical knowledge concerning depressions generally, and references to great artists and writers who also suffered from the affliction. Considering what he went thru, the work is fairly slight. He describes loosely what the depressions were like for him, their onset and daily routine for example, but he seems to hold back a bit what he was thinking and feeling. I know that seems unfair - the guy wrote a very courageous and straightforward book discussing something that most people would not want to tell the world about - but at times this reader felt that he was being shortchanged. br /br / The descriptions could have been more complete and detailed. And how exactly did he recover? He seems to describe it as a parting of the clouds, more or less. He does not hide the fact that his father suffered from this affliction, or his feeling that he never completely mourned for his mother, who died in his thirteenth year, and that this may have been a trigger for the illness. Styron's occasional references to medical literature in no way constitute a review - most grad students could have done more. His descriptions of his meetings with highly regarded psychiatrists are interesting - he views them with a certain amount of contempt, seems to not believe that they can provide much assistance, or to egoistically be unwilling to accept that they might possess knowledge and skills which he does not. It must have been very hard for this brilliant writer to accept that his mind was seriously disturbed. He does not really get into the subject, nor does he mention anything regarding what his spiritual beliefs were. So I felt that there were gaps - but that does not mean this book was not worthwhile.br /br / In her essay, Alexandra Styron reveals that her father's depression returned in the final years of his life. I do not think that any more writings on the subject came from his typewriter, so we may never have the full account of his struggles. But this is still a very powerful memoir/essay. This is well worth checking out by anyone who has had brushes with, or known people who have suffered from this problem - in other words, pretty much everybody.br / br /

5 out of 5 stars

Excellent compact book on symptoms of depression October 6, 2008
I was pleasantly surprized that this small volume gave me a clear grasp of how debilitating this condition can be. I am studying Clinical Psych in grad school and this volume gets to the point of the matter quickly.

5 out of 5 stars

This book is So helpful. It's Not "the blues" - it's a living nightmare! August 30, 2008
I have bought over 30 copies of this book, as gifts to friends, colleagues, and relatives. I hope you readers see that that is the highest recommendation one can give.br /br /It explains, in a very concise manner, major depression to those who have not experienced it. And an "Amen" from individuals who have experienced it.br /br /Depression is perhaps THE under-diagnosed illness of our time (along with diabetes). Yet the medical profession really knows little, and it is near impossible for the suffering individual to describe exactly what is going on (chicken egg?). William Styron is an award-winning, gifted, writer - who is able to put the indescribable into words that mean something to everyone. That is why this small book is important.br /br /Everyone knows someone suffering from this disease, even if they don't recognize it yet. So, Everyone needs to be familiar with major depression. Science needs a Lot more work -- the current biological and psychological treatments are inadequate, to say the least -- especially considering the high risk of suicide with this disease. Everyone needs to know how to get beyond the crises. Lives can be saved. br /br /Therefore, understanding - by sufferers and those who care about them - is key. Such understanding will help non-sufferers provide the assistance and support that he/she wants to give to the depressed person. Without such understanding, so-called "supporters" inadvertently make things worse.br /br /This book is a quick, engrossing, read that may Really help. Highly recommended.br /

4 out of 5 stars

descriptive but a bit naive August 26, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

(This is from the recorded version, read by the author.) I have listened to this book several times over many years. I do think he does a fine job of describing the actual feeling of being depressed, and does a great service by saying it is at bottom simply indescribable, and also incomprehensible by people who have never experienced it. Thus the well-meaning admonitions to 'buck up', 'get a hold of yourself' and 'most people are as happy as they set out to be' are torture to the person suffering from depression. br /br /However, much has been learned about depression since he wrote the book. It's so obvious that he was an alcoholic who went cold turkey in June and was still suffering from the effects of alcohol withdrawal in October, which can take months to subside. Then, to complicate things, he doped himself up with sleeping pills, so his system was flooded with foreign chemicals, replacing one he was adapted to with a new one. The result, a profound inability to function, and depression, would now be a surprise to no one but him. br /br /His attempt to link suicide to sensitive artistic temperaments was more a roll call of alcoholics---Hemingway, Jack London, Poe, etc. There may be a link between all three (sensitive types, suicide, and alcohol), but it's a three-legged stool, and Styron is loath to acknowlege his alcohol use as the third leg. Maybe he feels depression is more romantic than alcoholism, or at least more socially acceptable.br /br /The spectulation about repressed mourning, early death of mother, etc. is not nearly as important as his familial tendency to depression, his drinking, and his pill taking. Since he says the hospital did nothing for him but take away the pills, and he got better, that would seem good evidence for their role in his illness.br /br /In his obituary in 2006 it was mentioned that he had to be hospitalized several more times after the first time described in the book.br /br /In short, read the book to experience, as much as possible for an outsider, what depression 'feels' like, but don't buy the diagnosis of what causes it.

Copyright 2007 White Hat Communications.
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