isabelthespy:

psychotherapy:

Leonard Cohen talks about his own struggles with depression.

(And deserves some special kind of award for being so graceful and charming in the face of a rather dreadfully obnoxious interviewer)

oh this was great (in spite of the, yes, very obnoxious interviewer). favorite part (starting around 2:15):

interviewer: did you ever worry that if you dealt with the depression, if you actually got better, that you would lose touch with your artistic side, that understood that kind of pain and expressed it so well. [UGH. I KNOW, RIGHT? —ed]

leonard: no. that’s a popular notion, you know, that it is exclusively suffering that produces good work, or insightful work. i don’t think that’s the case. i think in a certain sense it’s a trigger or a lever, but i think that good work is produced in spite of suffering, and as a response, as a victory over suffering.

interviewer: that’s an interesting concept — a victory over suffering.

leonard: yeah, because, you know, if the level of the degree of intensity of anybody’s distress or disorder is sufficiently high, i mean, you can’t move. and for people who have experienced acute clinical depression, i mean the problem is getting to the next moment. i mean the room tilts, you lose your balance, and you’re incapable of coherent thought.

interviewer: have you been that bad?

leonard: yes. yeah. i’ve been there.

also special bonus, at 4:05 the interviewer (who is a woman) says “tell me about women” and leonard goes, “well you’re a much better authority on that than i am.” hearts in my eyes!

Gosh I love this man so much. HE LIVES IN THE SAME CITY AS ME. I have so many fantasies about running into him randomly, wherein I am so casual and cool and charming about it that he invites me over for dinner and we become pals.

If I actually ever did run into him I’d probably just stare at him until it made him uncomfortable, and then the force of my humiliation would open up a bottomless rift in the earth that would swallow me whole.