Carlos asked:

I would like to know philosophical explanations of severe depression and suicide.

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Philosophers write about suicide and whether it is ethical not, but have not considered suicide as it
relates to severe depression, since this is a psychological problem. However, existential
psychoanalysts make use of existential philosophy, which describes the nature of man's existence in
the world. The existentialist philosopher, Heidegger, held that we are cast into the world and cannot
escape the dread of our solitariness. We face others as impersonal beings, a faceless crowd, and
everything in our lives is contingent and meaningless and to exist authentically is to face death, which
stabilizes our lives. This is what Heidegger believes existence to be like, but other philosophers, such
as Buber and Levinas, take the opposite view that we gain meaning in our lives from others, and are
not trapped in solitary dread.

The danger of applying existentialism to psychological states like severe depression is that there is no
consensus about the nature of existence. Existentialists do not agree with one another so while there
may be elements of truth in existentialism, no existentialist can claim to be right and harm can result
from theory that isn't true. The danger of applying philosophy to psychological states is described by
E K Lederman in Mental Health and Human Conscience.Lederman describes a psychiatric patient
who was not depressed but schizophrenic with a morbid dread of becoming fat. The psychiatrist
applied Heideggerian philosophy and held that the patient's existence had become "ripe for death"
since she was filled with dread and through her suicide she did "find herself and choose herself". The
same could be said of someone severely depressed and so what we should conclude is that while
philosophers may be of use in assessing the ethics of suicide, severe depression should be regarded
as a psychological problem and be treated with drugs!

Rachel Browne