/lit/ - Literature

As a rebuttal, we can talk about depression as a kind of occlusion of the soul, a perceptual disability that blinds one to the warmth and light of existence. The patient huddles in a corner and watches the other people go by. To him they are prodigies, inexplicable, like paper dolls animated by a force he cannot percieve.

There is a psychological malaise that occurs in refugee children in uncertain circumstances. These children have survived starvation and shelling and the camps, but it is the indecision of western bureaucracy that destroys them.

The child becomes silent. They are always exhausted. The lids of the eyes seem to thicken. Eventually movement ceases altogether. They are awake, and aware, but they have given up. They have recognized their total powerlessness, and the powerlessness of their parents. They have learned that their will is worthless. They can be cajoled into eating. In severe cases, a feeding tube may be required.

I envy these children. Their souls are unclouded - they have accepted the truth of the world with their whole being.