Many people are convinced that the Russian mentality is characterized by a person with a permanent tense, wistful face, but is this really so. Our environment creates us, and starting from childhood you look at adults who survived the war, difficult events, some and hunger. Were in a difficult life situation, trying to find joy in life, but most of them are sullen. Their facial expressions are minimal, due to fatigue after work, constant tension, and you look at the adults, you think that this is how it should be and over time you turn into the serious adult who was your authority as a child.
You must immediately separate sadness and melancholy from the triad of depression. Which is characterized by hypothymia, a decrease in thinking and motor activity. Sometimes a person needs to be alone with himself, to be thoughtful and sad, but when a person is constantly in this state, it seriously affects his mental health. At this stage, the person is no longer aware of this, and already begins to enjoy it, as N.M. Karamzin mentioned in his sentimental novel “Poor Liza” — “I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow.
One could say that it is a tradition for many Russians to associate their depressed state with the climate. Plus there is an overlay of religion, which says that dejection is a mortal sin. And a person tries to stifle, suppress these feelings instead of just observing them.
For many, sadness and longing are considered romanticism. Suffering it becomes more mysterious and ready to open a portal to creativity. At first they begin to play this role, which subsequently consumes his personality. And immediately the question arises, would I give an antidepressant to Kurt Cobain, for example, right now?
There’s no special value in suffering, it’s not justified by future insights or works that can be derived from it, if you have pain, it needs to be treated. But one cannot deny the fact that it can also be supportive therapy for the author himself.
There is a notion of dullness, the cultural drabness and monotony that runs through your existence as a background. Characteristically describing the condition of Russian people.
