The Components of Personal Despair (IN: Essays in Self-Destruction, ed. by E S Shneidman)

Diggory presents an extensive study of the elements of hopelessness, providing background from the fields of history, philosophy & sociology as well as psychology & psychiatry. The components of personal despair, he states, are those conditions under which an individual’s special reason for existing are rendered non-existent. Either he is not equipped to pursue the goals permitted to him, or he does not have the ability to achieve any goals at all. 48 Refs. (NBB)