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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Styron compares the theories about depression to the theories about what?
(a) Evolution.
(b) Dinosaurs and Black Holes.
(c) Creation.
(d) The world is square/round debate.

2. Which writer does Styron quote as saying he had "lost the right path"?
(a) Camus.
(b) Dante.
(c) Gary.
(d) Shakespeare.

3. Why are late afternoons so distressing to Styron?
(a) He gets sleepy and couldn't work.
(b) He has to go to his doctor every afternoon.
(c) He takes naps and had nightmares during the nap.
(d) He suffers from panic and anxiety.

4. How does his diary represent his mental state?
(a) It corresponded to his moods as he wrote about them.
(b) It contained all his thoughts and feelings.
(c) That when he wanted to destroy it, he was close to his own death.
(d) It was a treatise on mental illness.

5. How does Styron indicate he was planning to die?
(a) He gathers a knife and some towels.
(b) He dresses nicely for the person who will find him.
(c) He revises his will and tries to write a goodbye letter.
(d) He sends his wife away for a time so he would be alone.

6. What does Styron say about people who survive a depressive episode?
(a) They come out with few permanent wounds.
(b) They are permanently damaged mentally.
(c) They are weak people who just happened to endure an episode.
(d) They are very strong people but succumb to a weakness.

7. What two things does Styron believe led to his depression?
(a) Chemical dependence and illness.
(b) His mother's death and a hereditary factor through his father.
(c) His wife's infidelity and the loss of his job.
(d) His physical illness and his anxiety.

8. From Job to Styron's day, he says artists and writers have been trying to do what?
(a) Cheer up people who suffer from depression with their works.
(b) Explain the blackness of the fantasia of depression.
(c) Build better relationships to overcome depression.
(d) Overcome the effects of depression that overcome artists.

9. What reason does Styron give for taking the prescribed medicines without question?
(a) He was told the medicine was harmless.
(b) He didn't know anything about the medicine.
(c) His doctor threathened the hospital if he didn't take it.
(d) He was too depressed to notice.

10. What is a probable reason that Styron's doctor or family don't suggest hospitalization for him?
(a) They don't know he was that bad.
(b) He gets angry whenever they approach the subject.
(c) They don't think it would help him.
(d) The social stigma and the fact that mental illness is not tangible or visible.

11. What is the phenomenon in which young victims of loss harbor guilt and rage for their entire lives?
(a) Fear and anxiety.
(b) Incomplete mourning.
(c) Depression.
(d) Lack of bonding.

12. As horrible as this hallucination is, what does Styron say about Bergman, who wrote the script?
(a) He was a depressed person himself.
(b) He was trying to scare depressed people.
(c) He wanted to show what depression looks like.
(d) That he had barely touched on the true horror of a depressed person.

13. What therapies are used in the hospital?
(a) Group therapy, art therapy, and watching TV shows.
(b) Medicines and psychotherapy.
(c) Shock treatment and medicines.
(d) No therapies; Styron just rested.

14. Though depression tends to recur, what advantage do sufferers of recurrence have?
(a) They know the best doctors and hospitals to use.
(b) Their family knows what to do for them.
(c) They are already on medicines.
(d) They know it is curable and know how to work through it.

15. Why does he throw his diary in the garbage instead of burning it?
(a) He doesn't want to start a fire and let his friends know what he was doing.
(b) He doesn't want to see any trace, such as ashes.
(c) It better represents the annihilation of a loathful self, and deserves to be thrown in the garbage as well.
(d) He is afraid of fire, so couldn't bring himself to burn the diary.

Short Answer Questions

1. What events led to Abraham Lincoln suffering depression and even attempting suicide?

2. What does Styron call the condition of the person suffering unrelenting depression?

3. How does Styron describe his recovery from depression?

4. What does Styron's psychiatrist do that sends him into a deep depression?

5. What did alcohol do for Styron that he considered positive?

(see the answer keys)

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