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Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

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Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#71

Post by delichon »

> [Holmes] battles with drug addiction, loneliness and depression. His genius thrives in part because of these vulnerabilities, not despite them.

If there was a pill for that, how many masterpieces like the Sherlock Holmes books would never be made? The products of misery have always been the devil's advocate's best arguments. If Doyle had not sympathized with Holmes' afflictions, he could not have written him. Or if he had written Holmes as a Mary Sue we wouldn't have cared. (Though for some reason it worked for Harry Potter.)

An effective education requires a certain amount of torture, and it works better when self inflicted.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#72

Post by tossandthrow »

wiseowise wrote: post #68
apples_oranges wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I neither like the taboo nor the opposite. Too much psychology talk in every day life, everyone is traumatised and has unresolved issues etc. That may be, but I wish we would handle it all more privately...

> Too much psychology talk in every day life I'm curious to hear how often do you hear it in every day life outside of the internet.

In all fairness, the internet is for many people a near 100% part of their life.

Especially for people working remotely without a family.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#73

Post by mosura »

watwut wrote: post #67
mosura wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where is this happening? The whole point is calling them “mental health problems” infers there is something systematically wrong with them as opposed to the obvious result of putting men in modern society.

Previously you said they are basically traditional masculinity and what men always were. Now they are result of modern society?

A man lives by himself in the woods: is he lonely or depressed?

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#74

Post by sho_hn »

wiseowise wrote: post #68
apples_oranges wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I neither like the taboo nor the opposite. Too much psychology talk in every day life, everyone is traumatised and has unresolved issues etc. That may be, but I wish we would handle it all more privately...

> Too much psychology talk in every day life I'm curious to hear how often do you hear it in every day life outside of the internet.

It definitely does feel like every American I know "has a therapist", sometimes.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#75

Post by mosura »

niemandhier wrote: post #64
FridayoLeary wrote: post #20

I feel like this article is revisionism. The author is making a wild assumption that no male, no matter the circumstances was presented with having issues or trauma in victorian literature. Being nice and sympathetic is also not a concept which was only discovered recently. The article just throws in key words like mental health to make it sound relevant for today. Maybe the only interesting part is that drug use was…

Britain was a very repressed culture at the time and for a long time after this. An Englishman’s proverbial “stiff upper lip” came to be a cliche for a reason. “Boarding school syndrome” would be the term coined for the emotional damage that was an educational ideal for a long while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boarding_school#Psychological_...

Yet the UK was most successful when led by people from that system.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#76

Post by fatbluntbandit »

paganel wrote: post #12
tossandthrow wrote: post #2

> One of those taboo subjects was male vulnerability and mental health problems. (emphasis is mine) I would argue that still in 2025 this is an extreme and institutionalized taboo.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#77

Post by GJim »

FridayoLeary wrote: post #20

I feel like this article is revisionism. The author is making a wild assumption that no male, no matter the circumstances was presented with having issues or trauma in victorian literature. Being nice and sympathetic is also not a concept which was only discovered recently. The article just throws in key words like mental health to make it sound relevant for today. Maybe the only interesting part is that drug use was…

> a fantastic and hilarious job of portraying holmes as an erratic drug addict.

Except in Conan Doyle's books, Holmes was a user of cocaine, not an addict.

This desire to portray Holmes as a drug addict says far more about our own times.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#78

Post by triceratops »

andersonpico wrote: post #46
lazide wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are under attack, vulnerability is bad. Historic ‘stoic male’ personas existed for a reason. Because in many situations, it works. Despite the complaining. And being less ‘emotionally connected’ is valuable when people use that connection to exploit or hurt you. A very common experience for many men. That people (especially women) then complain you won’t open up to them is a riot in those situations because it…

> (especially women) It's always about that isn't it? Not getting the reaction you want, vilifying your interlocutor, then run crying with fingers in your ears screaming "lalala I didn't want it anyway" and declaring yourself a stoic is really indicative of the type of people who in the present day call themselves stoics. This whole thread is just a long-winded version of redpill discourse, people who can see past mi…

I didn't see any vilification of women. Women value sharing and emotional vulnerability. It's how they bond with other women, who make up the bulk of their friends. Men's experiences with other men, the bulk of their friends, often make them wary of being emotionally vulnerable. Hence, naturally, a disconnect when a man and a woman are establishing a relationship.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#79

Post by boh »

We live in a culture of transparency where you are rewarded for confessing your weaknesses. At the time people tackled their issues outside of print, outside of public discourse. Just because there's no record of a person's private life doesn't mean it was taboo. It's just not for you to know about.

Re: Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through Sherlock Holmes

#80

Post by bear141 »

sho_hn wrote: post #74
wiseowise wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Too much psychology talk in every day life I'm curious to hear how often do you hear it in every day life outside of the internet.

It definitely does feel like every American I know "has a therapist", sometimes.

I used to think that therapists were ridiculous. But after having one for six or seven years now, I realize that it’s literally just someone you pay to help you be the happiest and best version of yourself. Maybe everyone doesn’t need that, but I don’t think anyone is inherently always the best version of themselves. What’s the point of not trying to be a little better?
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