Deep Pain of Existence, ''Always Winter but Never Christmas'' – the Language of Emotions in the State of Depression. Psycholinguistic Analysis of Selected Works by Edward Stachura

Abstract

This article is devoted to the issue of different aspects of depression. The introduction presents a relationship between depression and overwhelming pain of existence, sadness, and mental suffering. It was shown how depression is perceived by researchers and what are its most typical symptoms. Then, the problem of suicide was also discussed as the significant issue related to depression. It was described how people with suicidal tendencies perceive time and what emotions accompany them. These considerations constitute the background against which the profile of Edward Stachura was presented as a poet and prose writer who inscribed in the climate of depression. Further parts of the work were psycholinguistic analysis of Stachura’s literary texts, whose life was marked by a depressive illness and ended in a tragic way. The purpose of these considerations was to show the language of emotions in a state of emotional crisis emerging from the poet’s works. A great sense of the poet’s loneliness, problems in relations with others, difficult relationships with loved ones, feelings of exclusion, and mismatching with reality were described. The key condition often expressed in the poet’s works is existential emptiness with all its nuances. The artist’s language is extremely original, rich in terms of means of expression.