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Infinite Despair: The Realities of Depression in Infinite Jest

Samarth Menon

One of the most important voices in literature with regard to the normalization of mental health was troubled author David Foster Wallace, an individual who suffered from depression himself and committed suicide at the age of 46. Wallace’s postmodern magnum opus Infinite Jest still remains a monumental achievement in the exploration of addiction and depression 22 years after publication. Within the novel’s large ensemble of characters, one narrative particularly shines through as a stark portrait of living with depression, and that is marijuana addict Kate Gompert’s.

Kate Gompert is said to not just suffer from clinical depression, but from a condition described as psychotic depression. While for the sake of diagnosis, it is easy to label people with terms like these; but for Kate Gompert and many others suffering from depression, the reality extends beyond just labels. For Kate, she just describes her condition as It, remaining alienated from clinical terms. This is a consistent representation of real-life depression, where patients suffering from the condition are often unable to articulate their emotional state in clear terms.
A line that stands out as particularly interesting is the following – “Its emotional character, the feeling Gompert describes It as, is probably mostly indescribable except as a sort of double bind in which any/all of the alternatives we associate with human agency — sitting or standing, doing or resting, speaking or keeping silent, living or dying — are not just unpleasant but literally horrible.” According to DSM-5 guidelines, one of the symptoms of depression is the inability to function properly in everyday life, particularly with everyday activities. Wallace then accurately captures the anhedonia associated with these activities – that it’s not just that these activities are difficult to perform, but that they are almost unimaginably impossible to attempt in the first place. The condition takes away agency from the sufferer. The mindset which Wallace portrays here is hard to empathize with for people who have not suffered from depression – most misconceptions around depression revolve around depressed people being miscategorized as ‘lazy,’ so a description like this helps truly inhabit the headspace of someone who is trapped in a situation such as this.
Empathy, and by extension, loneliness and alienation is what Wallace tackles next in the narrative. Kate struggles to empathize with those who are not depressed, and so she suffers from loneliness as well. Clinical depression often results in the sufferer isolating themselves from others, which results in their depression getting even worse. Even identifying with other people with clinical depression becomes hard. As Wallace describes, it is truly a “hell for one.” An insight into this mindset also reveals why depressed individuals end up inevitably distancing themselves from others. A description of this state goes a long way in humanizing those who undergo this loneliness.
Lastly, Wallace dives into one of the more worrying symptoms of depression – suicidal ideation and preoccupation with death. For many, suicidal thoughts are hard to understand and grasp; suicide is often seen as a ‘selfish’ act and one that shows weakness of character. But Wallace manages to explain why people can be pushed into that particular state with the help of a burning building analogy. If trapped in a burning building, jumping out becomes a more desirable outcome than the flames. “It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames.” In depression, everyday living becomes so hard that the pain of existence is more terrifying than death. A peek into this idea goes a long way in helping understand and further figure out ways to reduce this fear itself.
The entire description of this anhedonia of existence goes a long way in helping understand how severe depression manifests in people. Wallace takes research that has been present for decades, and mixes it with a highly personal narrative in order to bridge the gap that exists between depressed and non-depressed people. The DSM-5 symptom list can often make this condition seem highly mechanical and machine-like. Infinite Jest makes sure that there is an attempt to explain what emotional state depression can often put people in, and why it can be hard to explain and get out of as well. The novel then goes a long way to bring this empathizing with mental health into mainstream conversation. 

References

Wallace, D.F. Infinite Jest.

Depression Definition and DSM-5 Diagnostic Criteria. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psycom.net/depression-definition-dsm-5-diagnostic-criteria/

Depression and Anhedonia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/brain-sense/200912/depression-and-anhedonia

Social Loneliness May Make the Depressed Even More So. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-antidepressant-diet/201706/social-loneliness-may-make-the-depressed-even-more-so
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