Essay On Existential Depression

Sometimes there is sad, and then more than sad. Then among gifted minds, there is existential depression sad. In James T. Webb’s article, “Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals” he explains the thought process of higher thinking individuals and how the thinking can affect their emotional state. Existential depression is when people ponder life’s existential questions like death, isolation, freedom, and meaninglessness, for a prolonged period of time. Tess in Aryn Kyle’s short story, “Nine” is an example of a gifted child with existential depression. She often contemplates the deaths of people around her, and her own mortality. She also is cut off emotionally from people, but not by her own design. She is isolated from her father’s life, pushed to the side, and almost forgotten. The people she lives with cause Tess to have these issues with her life, and as an effect, she qualifies as a gifted child with existential depression. Tess has thoughts above the normal thinking pattern of an eight-year-old. She struggles with some of these thoughts, and ponders them for days. Death is a morbid one she thinks of often. She has grasped the concept that “Death is an inevitable thing” (Webb), but seems obsessed with the concept. She claims that her mother is dead, though she just left her alone. She also claims that “her father is dying of lung cancer” (Kyle 1), even though
he is “right as rain” (Kyle 1). She struggles with the concept that everything can be alright. She has this belief that “some things need to be worried about” (Kyle 2). There is some truth to that statement, but the concepts Tess worries about are not the worries of a normal eight-year-old, death being one of them. Webb describes that “We cannot do much about the finiteness of our existence”, and Tess has honed in on this fact, and has gotten obsessed with all the possibilities of anything leading to her death. Accidents like knives slipping and cars crashing are occurrences that she seems to not get over the fact that they happen. These thoughts prove that she is a small, gifted child that struggles with existential depression. Another existential problem that gifted people can be isolation. Tess is isolated, alone, but not by her design. Her mother is gone, and her father is emotionally gone from her life. Her nanny just puts her down in front of the television and doesn’t talk to Tess. All her classmates at school ignore her, and leave her on her own. Tess then goes to extremes to try and get her father to care for her, and show some affection towards Tess. But from the lack of emotional and verbal communication Tess has had with anyone, she feels uncomfortable showing emotion towards anyone. One night, she goes to her room upset, but “No one sees Tess cry. And so it doesn’t count” (Kyle 5). She tries to find certain anchor points, or “causes”, as Webb refers to them as. When Meredith, her father’s girlfriend, comes along and begins to interact with Tess, that’s when Tess’s isolation issue comes through. Tess finds a cause in Meredith, in her ballet. She grips to the cause of Meredith, and starts to immerse herself in the thought of being with Meredith forever. Tess then slips into an even deeper existential depression when Meredith leaves. Her cause is gone, along with the only person who showed her any form of understanding. Webb describes that “In the same way that infants need to be held and touched, so do persons who are experiencing existential aloneness.” Tess is deprived of these touches that can help her deal with this depression. Tess in Aryn Kyle’s short story, “Nine”, reflects much of what James T.
Webb describes in his article “Existential Depression in Gifted Individuals”. Tess is an eight-year-old girl who struggles with the concepts of death and isolation in her everyday life. Those two topics are what Webb describes as existential problems, and that Tess’s thinking pattern is one of a gifted individuals. Her emotional needs aren’t met in her environment, and this depression develops as a result of this. Tess has basic needs, and until these needs are met, her depression will continue to develop into something
awful.