Antinatalism and Depression CXVIII: Wrong, Zapffe.
Channel: Anekantavad
Date: 2012-11-04

Unless I misread his blurb on the phenomenon of Isolation, I must say that in this case I simply disagree with him.

Isolation is - to a certain extent - essential to our survival. It is certainly essential to our mental health.

The Last Messiah:
By isolation I here mean a fully arbitrary dismissal from consciousness of all disturbing and destructive thought and feeling. (Engstrom: "One should not think, it is just confusing.") A perfect and almost brutalising variant is found among certain physicians, who for self-protection will only see the technical aspect of their profession. It can also decay to pure hooliganism, as among petty thugs and medical students, where any sensitivity to the tragic side of life is eradicated by violent means (football played with cadaver heads, and so on).
  In everyday interaction, isolation is manifested in a general code of mutual silence: primarily toward children, so these are not at once scared senseless by the life they have just begun, but retain their illusions until they can afford to lose them. In return, children are not to bother the adults with untimely reminders of sex, toilet, or death. Among adults there are the rules of 'tact,' the mechanism being openly displayed when a man who weeps on the street is removed with police assistance.

(NB: The last instance is revealing. We nowadays think of Scandinavia as a place filled with easygoing, tolerant and liberal people. In Zapffe's time, it was "Victorian" and repressed to an extent that might have surprised a contemporary Englishman. A small but significant instance of culture influencing Zapffe's work)

This video is also too long - even for a windbag like me.