depicted the apathetic restlessness of acedia, 'the noonday demon', in the coenobitic monk: He looks about anxiously this way and that, and sighs that none of the brethren come to see him, and often goes in and out of. He also explores the thorny patch of moral and ethical questions posed by emerging biological explanations for mental illness." "The depth of human experience Solomon chronicles, the range of his intelligence, and his boundless curiosity and compassion will change the reader's view of the world."-BOOK JACKET. The demon of acedia holds an important place in early monastic demonology and proto-psychology. He confronts the challenge of defining the illness and describes the vast range of available medications, the efficacy of alternative treatments, and the impact the malady has had on various demographic populations around the world and throughout history. Drawing on his own struggles with the illness and interviews with fellow sufferers, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, drug designers and philosophers, Solomon reveals the subtle complexities and sheer agony of the disease. "The Noonday Demon examines depression in personal, cultural, and scientific terms. Etymologically, acedia joins the negative prefix a- to the Greek noun kdos, which means care, concern, or grief. WITH A NEW EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR Like Primo Levis The Periodic Table, The Noonday Demon digs deep into personal history, as Andrew Solomon narrates, brilliantly and terrifyingly, his own agonising experience of depression. Broken link? let us search Trove, the Wayback Machine, or Google for you.
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