a book
Darkness Visible
William Clark Styron · 1990 · 106 pages
A work of great personal courage and a literary tour de force, this bestseller is Styron's true account of his descent into a crippling and almost suicidal depression. Styron is perhaps the first writer to convey the full terror of depression's psychic landscape, as well as the illuminating path to recovery.
"From the Trade Paperback edition."
recommended by 4 people
sourced from public statements
Sally Field
“I first read this tiny, exquisite memoir many years ago while researching to play a character diagnosed with a bipolar disorder, or manic depression. Originally written in 1989 as a lecture, then expanded into an essay published in Vanity Fair, and finally into a book, it is a frank, almost unemotional, account of what clinical depression feels like from the inside out. Styron, whose work I’ve always loved, generously tells of his terrifying life-threatening battle with the chemicals in his brain while he struggles to live his life as an artist, a friend, and a husband. Not only is he openly revealing things that are excruciatingly raw and private, but because he was a middle-aged man when it was written, admitting to the shame of mental illness—and the first to do so—I have always thought it to be a magnificent work of great personal courage.”↗
