Tag Archives: Black Milk

“Black Milk,” feminism, & depression

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I’ve read a lot of feminist literature in the past two decades, scholarly
endeavors as well as literary. Feminism was one of the powerful “isms” that the
20th century introduced and I think one of the most important of them in terms
of creating a new voice and in introducing to us the notion that new “voices”
are always in the making…or they should be if there is any “life” present in
the culture. Elif Sharak’s memoir Black Milk reflects one of these new
“voices” in Turkish culture. Sharak’s experience of becoming a new mother is
the framework of the memoir but it also delves significantly into the history of
feminism in the past century or so. She intertwines into the story line of the
memoir short vignettes of significant feminist figures in this time frame and
highlights some of the battles they fought with themselves, their romantic
partners, and their culture. She also eloquently describes her battle with a
debilitating post-partum depression.

There are many astute observations she makes in the book. I will share only
one, a piercing observation about depression which touches on faith in God. She
describes depression as, “that sinking feeling that your connection to God is
broken and you are left to float on your own in a liquid black space, like an
astronaut who has been cut loose from his spaceship and all that linked him to
Earth.”

I have read clinical tomes on the subject of depression and many of those that I
find most insightful, from a psycho-dynamic viewpoint, approach the subject of
depression as a loss, as the experience of “the lost object.” And from my own
clinical work I can note that one of the most significant signs of depression is
when a person starts breaking off connections, therefore “losing” friends, work,
family, faith…and if the downward spiral is not interrupted even life
itself. Ultimately this spiral leads to Hamlet’s famous lament, “To be or not to be,
that is the question.” These words of Shakespeare and the quotation above from
Shafak bring to my mind the famous Edvard Munch painting, The Scream. That is
one visual image of ultimate despair, the subjective experience of that
aforementioned astronaut being cut loose from his spaceship.

Turkey and Westernization

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I am reading another book by a Turkish author, this time a female, Elif Shafak. She is a popular novelist in Turkey though this particular book, Black Milk, is a memoir regarding “Writing, motherhood, and the harem within.” Earlier in my blogging life, I “held forth” re another Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk, especially his novel, The Museum of Innocence. My selection of these two authors arose from a day I was fortunate to spend in Istanbul last spring where I marveled at the beauty of their country, the kindness of their people, and the pronounced Westernization of their culture.

When I got home last spring, I quickly did some “Wiki-pedi (ing)” of Turkey and of course their famous leader from the early 20th century, Kamel Ataturk. I did further on-line reading this morning re Ataturk and am even more astounding at how he brazenly ruled that country and almost single-handedly decided to put in on the course of “Westernization.”  Incidentally, the novels of Pamuk in particular frequently allude to this transformation of his country and often evoke a sense of sadness over the loss that many people still feel in his country as a result of Ataturk’s iron-fisted, though apparently benign, rule. I think the psycho-social terms for these feelings include “anomie”, “unrootedness”, “alienation”, and “depression.”

Part of me pines for the days when a country’s leader could, by force of will (personal and political), shape the direction of his country. I think of the many good things that someone like O’Bama could do if he had the power. But that is because, of course, I’m a liberal Democrat; and if O’Bama had this power then so could the next fellow/fellow-ess. That is not the world that we live in any more. That kind of power is a thing of the past…other than in totalitarian countries of course!

Unfortunately, we are now left with a mess, a partisan political environment in which significant changes cannot be made.

Let me close with a quotation from Ataturk which reflect his pronounced Western viewpoint:

Humankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say ‘What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?’ If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.

Gosh I hope Rick Perry checks in here today.