There is, in fact, a strong contrast between fear and despair. Fear normally stimulates3 effort, despair depresses it. Fear is active, despair passive. Deep dejection and lassitude mark despair, while fear is intense agitation4 and activity. Fear in its original and normal function is stimulant5 of defensive6 action, fear as paralytic7 being secondary or abnormal, but in normal despair there is absolute inertness8. Fear, again, in contrast with despair, is direct and transitive. I fear the pain or injury, but my despair is only in relation to it, despair of, in despair, etc. Fear is at the evil itself, it is a direct attitude of mind toward it, through an ideal pre-experiencing, the very representation of any pain as experienceable carrying with it a thrill of fear. But despair concerns itself, not with the pain per se as experienceable, but with the inevitability9 of 122the painful. Fear rests upon idea of pain, despair, upon idea of its inevitability. “I despair of escape,” means a recoil10 of painful emotion at inevitability of painful experience. Sense of complete and permanent inability to attain11 an end, whether release from pain, or positively12, a securing a pleasure, generates commonly this distressful13 emotion. Despair is not then simple pain at pain, but at the unavertibility of the pain. Despair is then the mind bent14 down and crushed by the sense of the inevitable15 and irremediable nature of the pain, positive or negative, it experiences or is to experience. Despair is, indeed, hopelessness, though all hopelessness is not despair. There is no hope in stolidity16 or in stoicism, psychic17 modes quite distinct from despair, but which take the place with some natures.
Again, we must note that while fear has its degrees, and may be but partial, despair is always complete collapse18. I may fear a little but not despair a little, I may be frightened “just the least bit,” but not despair a little bit. The hostess who is “in despair” because the ice cream has not come, speaks truly, however, for the affair is for her so important and momentous19 as to be the basis of real despair. That which is the occasion of despair must always be or seem of capital value.
An adjacent and often precedent20 state to despair is desperation, which is a feeling of the almost inevitable. In the face of heavy odds21 there is often awakened22 a painful emotion which we term desperation, and which leads to strong and furious will action, to an intense and general struggle which is often advantageous23. An enemy fears to drive his adversary24 to desperation. In desperation we take one chance in a thousand or in a million; for example, the leader of a forlorn hope. It would be difficult to say whether despair or desperation contains more of pain, but they are obviously quite opposite in their character. To combative25 temperaments26 and with pugnacious27 123animals the sense of the seeming inevitable is often stimulative28 of desperation rather than despair. Such are “game” to the last. A criminal of this type will run amuck29 rather than submit to his fate in despair. The desperado is defiant30 to the end. With some whose natures are balanced between reflection and action there are in the face of the inevitable or almost inevitable rapid fluctuations31 of despair and desperation.
Dismay is another form closely akin32 to despair. Dismay is the immediate33 result for feeling of a sudden cognition of great difficulties and pains as imminent34. As the transition stage of rapid movement in feeling toward despair, as the sudden falling in temperature from hope, it is really incipient35 despair. Dismay is essentially36 temporary, and settles quickly into despair or rises into renewed hope. Though but such a passing mode, it yet has for the moment that sense of self-efficiency annihilated37 which is so characteristic of despair. Consternation38 is very intense dismay.
But what now is the real quality and inner nature of despair? what essentially is this strange drooping39 before inevitable loss, injury and pain? and what is its significance for life? Despair is certainly a very advanced and complex emotion, and we can do no more at present than merely remark on some of its most striking features.
A most noticeable and remarkable41 quality of despair is its introactive tendency. When the whole strength and vital motive42, of a full-grown teleologic43 psychic life—the dilettante44 is not capable of despair—is suddenly and completely withdrawn45, there results, not indifference46 nor ennui47 but a deep disturbance48 which is active on the minus side of mental life. The complete breaking up of great and absorbing hopes and of the free objective activity flowing from them brings will tension down, not simply to nil49, but gives it a spring back into the negative region beyond the line of mere40 quiescence50 and 124indifferentism. Despair is a revulsive process by which the whole mind is broken up, just as a propeller51 wheel running at high speed out of water or an engine working at high pressure when disconnected from its shafting52, tend to wrench53 and shatter themselves. Desire is not really extinct, but latent; though smothered54 it burns inward. This is that peculiar55 cankering, corroding56 quality, which is always so marked in despair. Will, not self-shattered, but forcibly pent by external circumstances, gives a sullen57 restlessness to the mental life now turned in upon itself. Hence the capacity for despair will be directly as the co-ordinate capacity for action and reflection in any individual, and as such co-ordination marks the highest level of conscious life, despair is certainly a phenomenon of exceptionally complex and advanced consciousness.
Again, we note that despair is intensely and oppressively a pain state, but the dull despair pain is distinct from racking fear pain. What now is the nature of despair pain, and what the reason for its peculiar quality? Here is not as in fear a feeling pain at pain, but at the idea of its inevitability and completely destructive power. The actual pain foreseen may seem bearable and excite little feeling, but it is the total loss of personal success, the complete thwarting58 of self-realization, that moves the mind to despair, that causes that sickening, dull, emotional pain which we term despair. Thus despair is eminently59 a disease of self-hood, an egoistic distemper, the strong and large individuality being peculiarly subject to it. However, the general problem of despair pain is practically the same as of the origin and nature of fear pain, which has already been discussed. Whether any mere representation induces pain, and how it does so, is certainly one of the most difficult problems of emotional psychology60. We have in a previous chapter sought to indicate in a general way that purely61 subjective62 or mental pain which is not in any wise revival63 of sensation or objective does really 125exist. Also since pain per se is always simple and identical, the differentiation64 of pains as seemingly quite different in kind, as fear pain, despair pain, etc., is really due to sensation, will, and other elements which closely adhere to pain and give it a certain local colouring. The whole emotion is a complex of various factors which are closely knit into a single state which to common observation seems simple, but which is really constituted in its ensemble65 by the total specific forces of many elements. In psychics66, as in physics, we know that common sense analysis of phenomena67 must be at fault, and that one who says “I certainly have an entirely68 different pain when I fear and when I despair,” is as much in the wrong as he who maintains essential diversities in material substance, or radical69 distinctions of species in the organic world. So we must believe that the peculiar quality of the pain in despair exists, not in the pain itself, but is really the colouring result from various coincident sensations and ideas. The lowering of the mental tone far below the zero point is greatly accentuated70 by refluent waves of organic sensation set up from the physical basis of the psychic disturbance.
How, we may now ask, did despair ever evolve and become a well-defined psychic form? in what way in the course of natural selection could such an apparently71 disadvantageous variation have arisen and been developed? The serviceability of fear is plain to every one, but of what possible value could despair be in the struggle of life? The one who gives up in despair is but very rarely doing the best thing. If we cannot look to the general principle of evolution, serviceability, how can we account for the appearance and growth of such a phase as despair, except as abnormal variation, a disease, profitable to the enemies of the individual, and so developed by and for external organisms. As there is an abnormal pathological variation of fear, which we have previously72 noticed, and which is forced in its development by enemies who profit by it, 126so despair is a psychic disease, entirely hurtful to the individual, and, so far, only advantageous for its enemies. Despair is, without doubt, one of those altruistic73 variations which serve, not the individual, but some antagonist74 in the struggle of existence. To bring one to despair is to make him entirely helpless and wholly at our mercy for our own ends. The possibility that active-reflective natures may prey75 upon themselves is thus stimulated76 into an actual phenomenon whose growth is continually fostered by those whose advantage it is to reduce the individual to a helpless condition. Despair is hardly an hypertrophy or atrophy77 of any normal tendency, it is rather a pathological genus by itself. The capacity for despair being inherent in the general formation of mind as subject to collapse, it arose solely78 in response to the needs of organisms warring upon the organism afflicted79. The whole field of physical and psychical80 altruistic variation under the general law of natural selection, decadent81 and self-injurious characteristics being stimulated and maintained in a kind of artificial selection, is an interesting but unexplored field, attention so far having been turned to the individually advantageous as determining element in evolution.
Despair is a disease of advanced and mature psychic life. Children are, in general, incapable82 of despair. It implies a well-developed sense of self and a general experience of the world. High and strong emotional natures, but rather weak-willed and narrow of intelligence, are predisposed to it. Occasions which would lead to despair will with lower natures be unnoticed or lead merely to stolidity; while with the highest natures, there comes heroic endeavour and wide searching for means and methods.
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1
condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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3
stimulates
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| v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 )；激励；使兴奋；起兴奋作用，起刺激作用，起促进作用 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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stimulant
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| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
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defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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paralytic
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| adj. 瘫痪的 n. 瘫痪病人 | |
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inertness
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| n.不活泼，没有生气；惰性；惯量 | |
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inevitability
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| n.必然性 | |
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10
recoil
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| vi.退却，退缩，畏缩 | |
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attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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positively
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| adv.明确地，断然，坚决地；实在，确实 | |
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distressful
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| adj.苦难重重的，不幸的，使苦恼的 | |
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14
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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stolidity
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| n.迟钝，感觉麻木 | |
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psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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momentous
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| adj.重要的，重大的 | |
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precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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23
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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adversary
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| adj.敌手，对手 | |
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combative
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| adj.好战的；好斗的 | |
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temperaments
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| 性格( temperament的名词复数 )； （人或动物的）气质； 易冲动； （性情）暴躁 | |
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pugnacious
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| adj.好斗的 | |
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stimulative
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| n.刺激，促进因素adj.刺激的，激励的，促进的 | |
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29
amuck
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| ad.狂乱地 | |
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defiant
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| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
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fluctuations
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| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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incipient
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| adj.起初的，发端的，初期的 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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37
annihilated
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| v.（彻底）消灭( annihilate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；废止；彻底击溃 | |
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38
consternation
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| n.大为吃惊，惊骇 | |
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39
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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40
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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42
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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teleologic
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| adj.目的论的 | |
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44
dilettante
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| n.半瓶醋，业余爱好者 | |
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45
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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46
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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ennui
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| n.怠倦，无聊 | |
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48
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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49
nil
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| n.无，全无，零 | |
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50
quiescence
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| n.静止 | |
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51
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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52
shafting
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| n.轴系；制轴材料；欺骗；怠慢 | |
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53
wrench
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| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
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54
smothered
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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55
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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56
corroding
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| 使腐蚀，侵蚀( corrode的现在分词 ) | |
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57
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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58
thwarting
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| 阻挠( thwart的现在分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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59
eminently
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| adv.突出地；显著地；不寻常地 | |
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60
psychology
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| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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subjective
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| a.主观(上)的，个人的 | |
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revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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differentiation
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| n.区别，区分 | |
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ensemble
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| n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果 | |
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psychics
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| 心理学，心灵学； （自称）通灵的或有特异功能的人，巫师( psychic的名词复数 ) | |
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phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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71
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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72
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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altruistic
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| adj.无私的，为他人着想的 | |
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antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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75
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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76
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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77
atrophy
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| n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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psychical
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| adj.有关特异功能现象的；有关特异功能官能的；灵魂的；心灵的 | |
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81
decadent
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| adj.颓废的，衰落的，堕落的 | |
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incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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