(Jacque Fresco) The discussion today is about depression.
There are many people that have been depressed for many years
and I get lots of letters.
Sometimes they say that
"I found no meaning in life, no purpose, and
you pulled me out of it."
I get a lot of letters like that
so the only thing I can say [is that] it's not due to genetics.
If it was due to genetics, I couldn't pull them out.
Does that make sense to you?
What is depression?
If you live vicariously through another person
(let's say you rely on that person entirely)
you live, and that person dies
you lose your identity
because you put your identity in another person
which isn't a good thing to do.
That's a kind of dependency. You know what I mean?
That's a part of depression, a little bit of it.
The rest is loss of identity.
You can lose your identity
if you're brought up with a philosophy of life
that doesn't reinforce you.
If you're brought up with a set of values: "Do the right thing
and everything will work out all right"
and if it doesn't work out all right, you become depressed
because you lose predictability. Is that clear?
If you have predictability about yourself and other people
you can anticipate certain things.
If you have no answer, if you look for answers in your own mind
it isn't exposed enough.
There's not enough in schools that give you a way of thinking
so you can solve problems.
It isn't that they don't want to. They don't have it.
They've never found a way of thinking they can solve problems.
That's why, when the businessman retires
he may become depressed
because he has no game to play.
All his life, say a guy that owns a jewelry store, that sells jewelry
and every sale makes him feel good.
Then he retires
and he has nothing anymore.
He has no identity, except 'sales of jewelry.'
Do you understand? That's gone?
What follows is depression.
There are some dogs that have been depressed
due to that they had a very close relationship with their master.
When the master dies
they sat next to the master and wouldn't go away
and bark at anybody that would try to take them away.
Their full identification was as a team with their master.
They had no identification when the master died.
They had no way of looking at it.
The difference between humans and most animals [is that]
most animals don't fear death. They don't even know there is such a thing.
They move away from animals that are larger than they are.
That's a reflex, but they don't know what death is
nor do they think of it.
So far, any questions?
Okay.
A person then asks themselves questions:
"Why did my wife leave me?"
and they can't figure it out, because everything they've done
was pleasing
and they don't understand that.
That is not necessarily a logical question.
Your wife may have left you for many different reasons:
that she likes a guy tall, with blond wavy hair
or stocky, or whatever.
If you don't meet that image, she might leave you.
The assumption that she won't leave you is what can depress you.
Your assumption about the world:
"Surely they won't have another war, while they're having a war now!"
you can't say that. You can say
"I'd like to see peace on Earth," so you work toward it
but if you hope there's peace on Earth
you might get depressed by the next war.
See, when people ask me, "When will the Venus Project be built?"
The honest answer is "I don't know."
I don't even know if we'll get there
but I can't accept what I see, so I try to intervene.
Intervening, does that mean we'll have a better world? Not necessarily.
Whatever you get is what you get.
Do you understand that?
The assumptions:
"Surely people can all see the logic of a one global society."
No, they can't!
That's a major problem
so you use different techniques
to try to get them oriented towards that.
Okay, so what is depression and how do you get rid of it?
If you're depressed it means
you're looking within yourself for answers
and you can't get that.
How did I get it?
I didn't find it in psychology books at all.
Here's how I got it.
I sat down, I said: "What is depression? " I said "I don't know."
How can I know what it is?
A depressed person always seems to have a low self-image.
Do you know what that means?
"I'm not getting anywhere in life. I'm not respected
three girls have left me. " Whatever it is
it's a low self-sufficiency to start with.
Instead of looking for 'the girl of your dreams'
you try to make her. Do you know what that means?
Educate her, in whatever way you can.
Does it mean it will work perfectly? No.
But it will work better than you doing nothing.
Do you understand that?
Therefore depression is not only loss of self-image
they have none.
A guy finds himself in the Marines
and he wants to be successful in the Marines
and that can't bring success
unless they give you medals and everybody pats you on the back.
That's your self-image: "I made it," you can say.
Or an actor, that does...
a theater actor that acts before a live audience
and they applaud after.
That makes him feel good.
[When it's] a movie, he doesn't know.
If he works in a movie, he doesn't know that people are going to applaud.
Do you understand that?
Therefore, he could encounter depression.
Anybody that does any routine:
a job, a jeweler, a plumber, an artist, a painter
if they don't get rewarded for their painting
like "You're a genius, you're good, creative"
that makes them go on painting.
If people say "What the hell is that supposed to be?"
If they paint because they like to paint that's much better
if that occurs.
If you go for a walk because you like to go for a walk
not because the doctor told you to go for a walk
everyday, for at least a half hour
but if you don't do it because you want to do it
Ii you go out for a walk through the country
and you smell the trees and you look around
and you're pleased by that, do it.
If it depresses you going for a walk
you have to restore the self-image.
In most instances there is no self-image
so you have to give them a self-image.
You have to talk about a lot of things [like] "I didn't know that
that water became ice suddenly.
I thought it was gradually how it became..."
Whatever it is, if you expose them to different branches of science
and they begin to find answers that satisfy them
their self-image grows.
If you make a Lutheran out of a person that says
"Have faith in God. He'll look after you"
if you put that faith in somebody you can't see or touch
it may carry you through
because you know there's somebody up there that loves you
even though nobody does
(that there is somebody up there)
and that helps some people
but it's not genuine help. Do you understand?
Because [he] says to the minister "What did I do wrong?"
If you believe in right and wrong, you can get depressed:
"I must have done the wrong thing."
It isn't the 'wrong' thing that you do.
It's a less valid thing that you do.
It's a less appropriate thing that you do. Do you know what I mean?
Not wrong. If you work on somebody:
"Snap out of that depression! Have faith in yourself
and confidence!"
Well, they might get fooled "Gee, you sound great!"
but that doesn't take away that self-image.
You don't take away the self-image. You add to it.
You understand what that means? Whatever the person is.
They only have no self-image. They don't know who they are.
(If you're in pain, that's different. I'm not talking about that.
If you have a tumor growing in your lungs and you can hardly breathe
that's something else. That's not depression.
That's physical disability.)
If you have your health
and you feel that you're learning something everyday
and don't ever assume that you can fix something too.
You can try to fix it: "I am going to try to fix it"
and if that doesn't work you come at it another way.
If that doesn't work, say "I can't handle it:
I need more information in that area."
That's what self-confidence is.
The more genuine information a person has in certain areas...
People that do feel "I can't get up before hundred people
and say something because
I worry about whether I'll 'goof'
and they'll laugh at me."
Here's how you handle that:
You never talk to people to win approval.
You talk to people to inform.
If you were in a building, in the hallway
and a big beam fell on fire, you'd go in for the thousand people
and say "Exit as fast as you can. There's a fire!"
and you won't feel bad about it because what you're saying
is essential to their well-being
but when you gamble and you say "I don't believe in God!"
at a church meeting, they'd all say "What?!"
They're not going to say "How do you account for all this?"
They don't even do that.
If they don't do that, there's no bridge. You have to build a bridge.
Even a religious person, when they get a [broken] window crank
and they crank it and the window doesn't open
they take it back to the company.
They need verification.
When they buy something the [sales] guy says
"If you buy this window it's hurricane-proof
because there's a sheet of plastic between two sheets of glass
so you can't smash it with an object."
You have to give the person with a low self-sufficiency
a high self-sufficiency by giving him a direction, or her
so they don't concentrate on themselves:
"I've been working all these years and I've nothing to show for it!"
"Did you assume that you would have something?"
What you have to do is engage in self-image and ask questions:
Why I am depressed? Why do I feel insufficient in a crowd?
Because I'm hoping the crowd will like what I say.
[As for me] I don't give a shit.
If they believe the Earth is flat and I find out it's round
I enjoy telling them it's round.
If they refuse it, that's their problem, not mine.
If you feel you are unsuccessful in presenting an idea
the assumption that you will be successful is depressing.
Do you understand that? That's what makes depression.
When you do something and nothing happens;
when you row a boat and it doesn't move.
If you get in a boat, and you don't know how to use the oars
and it doesn't move, you get depressed.
When you pull on the string and the motor doesn't start
you say "What the hell? " and you pull on it, until it does start
or you learn that you might have to change the spark plug.
It might have a shorter gap or a longer gap
and you bring the gap closer together so you have a spark.
If you don't know those basic things, you can kick the lawnmower.
We tend to project living human characteristics into things.
Sometimes, if your binoculars don't work, you throw them on the couch
(do you know what I mean?)
because you get mad at the binoculars.
You give it a personality "God damn it, you should work!"
"I paid $40 for it. That's why it should work."
No, you paid $40 and it doesn't work, so you take it back
or you leave it until you go into town again
but throwing it on the couch or the floor, doesn't make it work.
Sometimes, if there's a loose wire in your TV set
and you kick the set and the wires [connect], it'll go on again
so sometimes that carries on that type of value system.
I think I covered everything related to depression.
It's a low self-image, or no self-image, or looking for justice.
If you give them something to do that they identify with
(not something that you like) something...
Talk to them about The Venus Project, work on it, talk to other people
then they feel they are doing something.
If other people don't understand them, they might feel disappointed.
What they're disappointed in
is their inability to make contact with other people.
It takes practice and error and mistakes.
When I first walked over to [Ku Klux] Klan people [and said]
"Why are you beating up the black guy? He didn't do anything to you"
they just said "There's a nigger-lover from the North!"
They did not hear that nor could they hear that. Do you understand?
If you talk to a depressed person, and you show them what it is
so that they know what's wrong with them:
They don't have a self-image.
How do you get a self-image? By learning new things.
By learning things that take you out of the old value system.