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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justin C who wrote (18478)	3/6/1999 9:36:00 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

<<<Dr. Joyce Brothers once said that suicidal people tend to suffer from "a profound lack of imagination". WHich sounds terribly clever, but I'm not sure I agree-- I suppose she means that they no longer can envision a future of any attractiveness or any alternative to the hell they're in? BUt I don't think that denies the presence of imagination; in fact many great artists are suicidal even in the throes of their greatest creativity. I think a lot of them are victims of an affective disorder--Poe, Gauguin, Pollack, Schumann. Syliva Plath, Van Gogh, Anne Sexton, Hemingway, Virginia Woolf all committed suicide. Artists and depression seem to go hand in hand. I think people with little imagination would be less likely to despair, be more accepting. Which raises the question of whether the new drugs for depression would hinder the creative effort??

To: Justin C who wrote (18478)	3/6/1999 2:20:00 PM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 71178

If Dr. Brothers said that, she is an insightless dweeb. The people I knew who committed suicide, my friends (not all my friends commit suicide, that's not what I meant!) had very good imaginations. I never saw it coming for any of them, and that suggests to me that they had become isolated and alienated from everyone else. R.D. Laing said that people commit suicide out of a "hope too terrible to be borne." I think that's closer to the truth if you want a soundbite explanation.

To: Justin C who wrote (18478)	3/6/1999 2:50:00 PM
From: Gauguin	Respond to of 71178

Dr Brothers has scared me at times in the past. However, we don't know the context of: suicidal people tend to suffer from "a profound lack of imagination". Unfortunately this can be read two ways. The second way is true. It has nothing to do with rudeness. It goes deep in a direction hard to explain. Many psychiatrists haven't seen it, don't understand it. Maybe she does, and that is remarkable. I give her my respect if she has. Psychiatrists, even though they treat it, are "experts," they have never experienced or even reached for the condition. It's my opinion that if there is a way to induce this most important state onto medical students it should be done. (Perhaps giving them the same drugs they gave me. But that's a personal, angry, irrelevant story, to the need for Them to Understand what they are "treating." It's deeper than empathy, it's more like, again, respect. Being able to "see" from there. The only problem is, there has to be a way to get back, or we could lose them and what they've learned.) I think she is talking about brain chemistry. Not about imagination as creativity. Or imagination as avenues with which to take care of oneself. One could almost put "normal delusion" or positive outcome prediction in the same spot. Suffer and profound are key words. Imagination is misstated in slightly lay terms.

To: Justin C who wrote (18478)	3/6/1999 7:18:00 PM
From: Ish	Respond to of 71178

<<Dr. Joyce Brothers once said that suicidal people tend to suffer from "a profound lack of imagination". >> And just what the hell does she know? Dr. Laura is the rage now. Really, lack of hope can cloud a person's thinking to where they can't even imagine a solution.

To: Justin C who wrote (18478)	3/6/1999 9:54:00 PM
From: JF Quinnelly	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

Dear Dr Rambi, Joyce Brothers once said that suicidal people suffer from "a profound lack of imagination." This confuses me, as I have a vivid imagination, a bottle of Scotch and a bottle of pills. Vincent Dear Vincent, Joyce Brothers is a fool: suicidal people are just plain nuts. They kill themselves, you dimwit! What the hell does imagination have to do with it? I'll tell you: nothing!! And you, Vincent, are one of those same pathetic losers: quit wasting my time with your whiny self-pity, and your drivel about your precious imagination. Swallow those pills. Drink that Scotch. You'll be doing Natural Selection a favor, weeding out another crazy bastard. your pal, Dr Rambi