Depression is a mental condition that holds the person in a state of helplessness or arrest with respect to his abilities, his plans, his perspectives, his own underlying vital energies. It can be a slow descent, as well as a sharp jerk. The more abrupt it is, the less stable it is, and the more the risk is that the behaviors are impulsive and (self) destructive. A rapid and often chaotic depression, suspended between a loss of hope and an accumulation of energy (agitation) that cannot find an outlet, the craving for desires or goals that are perceived as very important and at the same time impossible to achieve. These are the moments in which the idea of dying most often comes on, not so much as an escape but as an extreme gesture of leap towards a hypothetical new reality in which to move forward.
Of depression, which in general terms means only a set of symptoms common to different types of diseases, there are different types and also different stages of severity, of depth. Mourning, the reaction to failure, to disappointment, to the frustration of expectations, are forms of depression per se common and indeed expected sooner or later even in the most fortunate of lives. They also have a component of re-adaptation, of strategic retreat in order to return to new decisions with greater experience of errors and limits, and therefore reborn with greater abilities. This does not mean that the normal depressive experience is not painful, but it is a pain that one can grow through, and that the brain is generally prepared to handle.
On the other hand, when you start to struggle, to have to stop, to no longer want to see a future, to not even want to try, then you are at another stage, in which the brain will no longer react so easily: on the contrary, the reaction of the brain and just that, to descend, to stop, to give a braking motion, to friction. It is the point in which we live as if past mourning or failure were by now not fully recoverable, and we went on more for duty than for pleasure, more for dignity than because we hope to meet some success. In doing so, in fact, one also escapes from opportunities, from encounters, one lives on sufficiency.
The third stage is depressive psychosis, when a humoral filter of slowing down, distance and heaviness colors everything without communicating with the outside, to the point that everything revolves around the depressed person and his pain, his immobility, his decadence. , his guilt, his inconsistency. The person no longer communicates, whether he is mute or in the throes of crying and screaming fits. He has no more hope, he does not know where to go, whether he is motionless or agitated.
In the classifications of depression, reference is made to both an intensity of symptoms (major with mild-moderate-severe subdegrees, and minor), both to a duration (acute-chronic), and to a cause (reactive, spontaneous), to some presentations (anxious, masked, psychotic etc). The fact is that depression actually means the presence of some symptoms, which however, depending on other characteristics, correspond to diseases that are different from each other, with different meanings. Sometimes a type of depression can evolve into a more serious one, such as, for example, from bereavement to autonomous depression, but usually the differences are already recognized initially. Since in the descriptions of the manuals the symptoms often all have the same weight in composing the mosaic of depression,
One can try a different classification, and start from an alternative point of view. We define depression simply “pain” and identify the different forms of “mental pain”. The writer Thomas De Quincey in one of the chapters of “ Confessions of an opium addict”Describes the figures of three sisters, calling them Our Lord of Pain, or simply the Pains. Three sisters from a single family, but with very distinct paths. That is to say, three depressive syndromes born from a single brain, but which then follow three distinct developments as three diseases. The figures of the three mothers have inspired Dario Argento for some of his horror films (Inferno, Suspiria, The third mother), a divinity who embody the presence of pain in humanity, ambiguously between pure destruction and the stimulus for overcoming. and a spiritual rebirth.
Part I – Mater Lachrymarum
The First of these Female Demons and Mater Lachrymarum, the Lady of Tears. She is the eldest of the three sisters, her eyes gather a thousand human expressions (“Her eyes are from time to time sweet and cunning, intense and sleepy; often they rise towards the clouds; often they challenge the sky”. It reaches anyone, and accompanies him in tears, as well as in nostalgia, melancholy, and fears. His reign is the largest. Mater Lachrymarum is the tip of the iceberg of depression, the most common part, which affects everyone and therefore accompanies life without actually interrupting it, and the inevitable pain, the price to pay for the joys of life.
The pain of a loss to pay for a love enjoyed, the pain of the end to pay for whatever one has lived with enthusiasm, the mutilation of a bereavement of a loved one, in which on the one hand one continues to live while on the other you stay and die. Mater Lachrymarum moves, flies, has a purpose and a reason, takes the form of the weeping face of those who suffer from time to time. She “is often stormy and frenetic, inveighs loudly against the sky and asks that they be made her loved ones”, and therefore a symbol of life, wound, which continues to move in search of consolation or a new meaning for move on, through the pain.
It is also similar to a demon of nightmares, as it “sneaks, ghostly intruder, into the rooms of sleepless men, sleepless women, sleepless children”. Fears and pains that help to grow, a pledge to pay for knowing (the fears) and for having known (the loss).
The description of this first Mother corresponds to the “bereavement reaction” or fear of the unknown , the strident contacts and pains between man with his will to live and the margins of death and the threatening unknown, which threatens to swallow and do not return anything we love or want.
Many of the signs attributed to this demon are the symptoms that are asked to evaluate the severity of a depression, in the sense that the presence of crying, the protest reaction, the preservation of movement, facial expressions, the ability to express emotions visually and with gestures, to talk about goals and projects, even if interrupted for the moment, indicates a mild depression. These pictures may correspond to depressive reactions, not real depressive illnesses but pains with which those who love, fight and aspire pay the price for that love when they lose, and defeat or fail.
Part II – Mater Suspiriorum
The second Lady and Mater Suspiriorum, represented in the film Suspiria in some of her attributes. She is an unadorned, scruffy and unwilling figure. She wears a ragged turban, she doesn’t speak, she doesn’t cry and she doesn’t complain, she sits or lies down and beyond that she never appears in public. She is withdrawn because she has renounced light, happiness and success, she lives by dragging herself into the memory of a lost splendor, of a happiness that no longer makes sense to chase. Her only pride in her is that of having given up the fight, of having recognized her helplessness and her defeat, without the presumption of wanting to go back or regain color.
Indeed, for all this, he expresses a sort of skepticism and contempt, as if to console his loneliness and his withdrawal. His presence is marked by a low sigh, at intervals, sometimes similar to a hum, consumed in darkness or in hidden corners. His head is turned down, his gaze is fleeting but still empty of expressions. In other words, the figure of him and the empty shell of a man, a pile of ashes that buries the last embers in a room that is now freezing. The stalemate and “chronicization” of a depression corresponds more or less to this condition, with the gaze pointing down rather than up, with the toe turned backwards. While in the tears (Mater Lachrymarum) there is hope or rebellion, in the sigh there is only endurance and escape, emotional anonymity.
In the “tearful” pain we still hope for a new battle, for a ransom. In the “sighing” pain it is hoped that an honorable surrender will hold up, even if ever smaller is the distance between surrender and total absence. In the “sighing” depression there is no longer the strength to solicit new battles, it is therefore not a defeat by kappa-o, but by the surrender of the adversary, which is never consumed but as if it were already defined. Mater Suspiriorum does not carry a set of keys that open any door, like the Mother of Tears, but she carries only one key, and she does not use it. In the same way as depression imposes a single emotion of indifference and weakness, which she has no use, is useless, does not open anything. A unique key that will open her lock less and less, with more and more difficulty.
People “depressed” in this sense may also still be functioning in some areas, such as in work, because in depression not always all functions slow down to the same extent and with the same external impact. This is why some are “dead inside” even though they seem normal from the outside. Precisely because it is a lack of hope, a loss of energy, and easy that it does not transpire from the outside, if not from the eyes that often become elusive and from the least urge to communicate. The “sighing” pain makes itself invisible to others, and makes the person invisible to himself, so much so that in the end it will seem to have existed by mistake, and certainly to exist without purpose. Usually these people say they can put a mask in front of others, or to maintain the functions that others expect of them, so that others are surprised to know that they are depressed or in pain. The fact of hiding from others also derives from the feeling of desolation, which does not lead one to think that it can be useful to ask for help or confide in one another, but rather forces one into an emotional prison, which the person in the end will also think he deserves. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. so that others are surprised to know that they are depressed or suffering. The fact of hiding from others also derives from the feeling of desolation, which does not lead one to think that it can be useful to ask for help or confide in one another, but rather forces one into an emotional prison, which the person in the end will also think he deserves. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. so that others are surprised to know that they are depressed or suffering. The fact of hiding from others also derives from the feeling of desolation, which does not lead one to think that it can be useful to ask for help or confide in one another, but rather forces one into an emotional prison, which the person in the end will also think he deserves. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. The fact of hiding from others also derives from the feeling of desolation, which does not lead one to think that it can be useful to ask for help or confide in one another, but rather forces one into an emotional prison, which the person in the end will also think he deserves. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. The fact of hiding from others also derives from the feeling of desolation, which does not lead one to think that it can be useful to ask for help or confide in one another, but rather forces one into an emotional prison, which the person in the end will also think he deserves. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. that the person will eventually also think they deserve. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering. that the person will eventually also think they deserve. Even in the apparent, outward recovery from a depression he can remain within this desolation, so that “there are some who in the face of the world carry their heads high like the proud reindeer, yet have secretly received its mark on their foreheads”. What is technically called residual depression, or chronic depression, forms attenuated as the intensity of symptoms but perhaps not as the severity of emotional suffering.
Sigh depression corresponds to depressive illness in general, with its clinical subtypes of anxious, slowed down, masked depression.
Part I – Mater Tenebrarum
We come to the third figure of depression, the third Pain. She is the youngest of the three, and “her kingdom is not greater than her, otherwise there would be no more life”. The concept recalls that of Epicurus, according to which the pain can be intense or last for a long time, but not both at the same time. Maximum pain is therefore an exceptional component of life. His eyes are above the clouds, yet no matter how bright they are, they are still visible as looming stars: they express “the fierce light of an ardent suffering, which never rests at morning or at vespers, at noon or midnight, at the rising tide or at the ebbing tide “. She is at the same time gigantic and very tall, and therefore one cannot avoid seeing her, but she is veiled, so that the sharp detail of her face will never be seen.
Mater tenebrarum and mother of follies, and inspirer of suicides. A pain in continuous movement therefore, an intense painful craving, which however occurs only in exceptional moments, moments that can upset the mind and be lethal. “Much of her power has its roots; but the number of those over whom she dominates is small, since she can only approach those whose deep nature has been upset by an intimate convulsion ”. Agitated Depression and the psychiatric profile of Mater Tenebrarum, otherwise known as the Mixed State. A depression originating from deep nature (the brain determined by genetics and molecular structure), and accelerated in body movements and thoughts, which does not leave peace, which chases the person from within.
There is therefore a pain more powerful than the already apparently absolute one of the slowed depression, of Mater Suspiriorum, and it is agitated pain. The slowed down depression consigns the person to immobility, hides them in a dark corner, keeps them still behind a wall. But it does not torment her to force her to move, as it does in agitated Depression, in which the person finds himself torn between emptiness and lack of hope and the instinct to move in order to find a way out. It is no coincidence that this depression, the agitated one, is more at risk of suicide than the slowed down one. It is not the severity of the depressive symptoms that results in self-annihilation, but the agitation combined with the lack of hope:
Agitated pain does not become part of human affairs, it does not take on a meaning, and a storm overwhelms emotions and values from within: if the depression “of sighs” crushes people down, on the floor, and nails them at the bottom, the “stormy” depression of Mater Tenebrarum projects them upwards, crushing them against the ceiling and from there beyond the confines of the rooms of life. An image above all that conveys the idea, and the contrast between the head high above the sky and turned upwards, and the triple veil that covers it (greatness and desperation). In agitated depression there is impulsiveness of any kind, it “has unpredictable motions, jerky and with tiger jumps”.
This triad of figures describes more effectively than the official classifications the three types of illnesses that include depressive symptoms: depressive reactions (the prototype of which is the pain of loss) that take place through tears and passions; the slowdown (a loss of emotional share and vital energy) which is expressed with sighs and inner death, and the agitated depression (a depressive craving) which takes place like a storm without a purpose that tends to detach itself from reality. It is easy for hallucinations, delusions to appear in this depression and for the “greatness” of emotions or sensations to be unbearable or infinite for the person, beyond the ability to find accommodation or meaning within the real world.
Mater Lacrimarum
Mater Suspiriorum
Mater Tenebrarum
Flies, moves, walks with uncertain but elegant steps
Does not leave her rooms, drags herself with a timid and stealthy air
She stirs with unpredictable motions, jerky and with tiger leaps
She wears a diadem on her head
Does not wear a crown
Head crowned with towers
Iridescent and enigmatic
gaze Inexpressive
gaze Flaming gaze
Head turned upwards, as a sign of defiance
Head turned towards the earth
Head turned upwards but covered by a triple veil
Moans and cries continuously
Does not speak, sighs at intervals, grumbles in aloof
Loss, wound, rebellion
Desolation, defeat, renunciation
Desire for death, irrepressibility
His largest kingdom
His smallest kingdom
He touches everyone, he has the keys to every house
He touches only a few, breaks in doors
It can afflict anyone, for a short or long time
Afflicts predisposed minds, does not stay long or leads to death
The eldest daughter
The youngest
Mourning, depressive reaction
“slowed” major depression, “anxious” major
depression Mixed depressive state, agitated depression, mixed mania (Bipolar Disorder)
Wounded
life Still life
Death wish
Note 1. The psychiatric counterparts and the “existential” dimension closest to each of the figures are reported in the last two lines.
Please refer to the link for the soundtrack of the film Inferno, by Keith Emerson, with a song dedicated to the myth of the three mothers http://www.youtube.com/watch
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