“The Black Struggle”: Metaphors of Depression in Styron'sDarkness Visible

Abstract

We used a content analytic methodology to search William Styron's memoir, Darkness Visible, for metaphors of depression, treatment, recovery, and psychological phenomena. Of the 1,383 metaphors identified, 55% dealt with depression. Treatment, recovery, and suicide metaphors represented 9%, 7%, and 6% of the sample, respectively. Inspection of Styron's metaphors suggested that he characterized depression and suicide as having a directionality that is down, in, and away and as a sequential process of suffering and adversity that is a form of malevolence and annihilation. In contrast, recovery is up, out, and through and characterized as a sequential process of return to a life of goodness and light. Our analysis indicated that the metaphor system of Darkness Visible is internally consistent: Metaphors for similar concepts show recurrent and compatible patterns whereas metaphors of opposing concepts contain opposing comparisons. Styon's metaphor system is also externally valid, in the sense that it reflects a number of interlocking cultural programs, including patterns of everyday thought, historical stereotypes of mental disorder, Western conceptions of emotion and mental illness, and literary traditions of the description of depression. We discuss the implications of our findings for public education about depression and for theories about the relationship between social cognition and social knowledge.To most of those who have experienced it, the horror of depression is so overwhelming as to be quite beyond expression .

Photography as a Measure of Constricted Construing: The Experience of Depression Through a Camera

“…Throughout the literature, the importance of metaphor as a means of communicating the experience of depression has been repeatedly acknowledged (Rowe, 1985;Angus & Rennie, 1989;McMullen & Conway, 1999;Schoeneman et al, 2004a;Schoeneman et al, 2004b;Harvey, 2004). Despite the recognised importance of the metaphor, there has been limited research examining the use of visual metaphors in depression.…”

“…These visual metaphors will be explored in accordance with the thematic analysis outlined by previous authors (Angus & Rennie, 1989;Levitt, Korman & Rennie, 2000;Angus & Korman, 2000;Schoeneman et al, 2004a).…”

Looking on the Dark and Bright Side: Creative Metaphors of Depression in Two Graphic Memoirs

“…For example, the metaphors William Styron uses in his popular memoir, Darkness visible (1990), have been found to draw on highly conventional cultural models of depression, although the author was able to reassemble them in a way that was clearly helpful to a lot of readers (Schoeneman et al, 2004). …”

Fighting the Battle or Running the Race?

“…Most of the research using metaphor analysis has examined verbal cues with illnesses such as depression (Angus & Korman, 2002;McMullen & Conway, 2002;Schoeneman, Schoeneman, & Stallings, 2004b), and cancer (Abramson, 2003;Gill & Babrow, 2007;Mehl-Madrona, 2003;Rossman, 2003). Visual analysis of illness has entered the healthcare literature as well (Douglas, 2002).…”

“…Visual analysis of illness has entered the healthcare literature as well (Douglas, 2002). However, Schoeneman et al (2004b) found that the research on medical metaphors does not discuss "metaphors of recovery, symptom relief, and mental health" (p. 356). In other words, most research on medical metaphors has ignored the ideological and moral levels of meaning suggested by Hall (1981).…”