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
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