The Limits of My Language: Meditations on Depression

The Limits of My Language: Meditations on Depression

"Moving, poetic, cogent and honest." -- Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon An intimate study of depression that draws on personal experience and a deep knowledge of philosophy—perfect for fans of Maggie Nelson and Leslie Jamison The Limits of My Language is both a razor-sharp analysis of depression and a steadfast search for the things great and small -- from philosophy and art to walking a dog or sitting quietly with a cat -- that make our lives worth living. Much has been written about the treatment of depression, but relatively little about its meaning. In this strikingly original book, Eva Meijer weaves her own experiences and the insights of thinkers from Freud to Foucault and Woolf into a moving and incisive evocation of the condition. Depression is more than a chemical problem—the questions that occupy someone with depression are fundamentally human, and they touch on other philosophical questions that concern language, autonomy, power relations, loneliness, and the relationship between body and mind. But this book-length essay is also about the other side, such as animals, trees, others, art: about consolation, and hope, and the things that can give life meaning. The Limits of My Language explores how depression can make us grow out of shape over time, like a twisted tree, how we can sometimes remould ourselves in conversation with others, and how to move on from our darkest thoughts. Eva Meijer is a prizewinning Dutch author, artist, singer, songwriter and philosopher. Bird Cottage , her first novel to be translated into English, was nominated for the BNG and Libris prizes in the Netherlands and is also available from Pushkin Press. Her non-fiction book Animal Languages has also been published in English. Antoinette Fawcett is half-Dutch and a translator of literary fiction and poetry from Dutch to English. Her translation for Pushkin Press of Eva Meijer’s Bird Cottage was shortlisted for the Vondel Translation Prize.