ABSTRACT
Individuals, from the hermit to the bon vivant, derive their identities, preferences, place and status, from the society in which they live. Since humans are social animals defined in the context of their society and culture, society is the final arbiter of an individual’s success or failure. In this chapter I examine the societal and cultural linkages that define who the individual is in the context of their dissolution, since when those critical societal links are damaged or broken, the individual, if not society, is fundamentally changed. Despair, however defined, forcibly evicts the individual from society and leaves the individual without hope. In this chapter, I examine despair, that total loss of hope, and the behaviours associated therewith, from the perspectives of many disciplines including theology, philosophy, biology and psychology, define the emotion/existential state that is despair and look to literature, poetry, music and art to develop a deep cultural understanding of despair. Drawing these characterizations together, I consider despairing individuals, the choices they can and cannot make, the tenuousness of their lives and society’s ability to forgive the individual and to damn itself to despair.
