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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Styron say family and friends should continue to do for the depressed person?
(a) Tell them to cheer up and get over it.
(b) Make them talk about their problems.
(c) Watch them constantly to prevent suicide.
(d) Validate their worth and sense of self.

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

3. What is Styron's avoidance of death due to?
(a) His writings and intellectual endeavors.
(b) His love for his wife.
(c) His homage to his mother.
(d) The recognition he got from others.

4. In the movie, "Through a Glass Darkly," the hallucination that the actress has is about what?
(a) Monsters in her closet.
(b) A spider trying to sexually attack her.
(c) Snakes crawling on the ceiling.
(d) Getting lost in the woods

5. What term does Styron use to describe his depression?
(a) A hole in his heart.
(b) A black tempest.
(c) A deep hole.
(d) An excruciating pain.

6. What happens when Styron's medicine is changed?
(a) He becomes violent and has to be restrained.
(b) His depression deepens.
(c) He can't sleep at night.
(d) His suicidal thoughts cease.

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

8. What does Styron's psychiatrist recommend to him about the hospital?
(a) To go to the hospital for treatment.
(b) To go to a hospital in Paris so no one would know.
(c) To plan on staying for a year in the hospital.
(d) To avoid the hospital at all costs.

9. What piece of music moves Styron to his breakthrough and hospitalization?
(a) Halleluah Chorus.
(b) Chopin's Funeral March.
(c) Beethoven's Fifth.
(d) Brahms's Alto Rhapsody.

10. Styron names a number of writers, poets, and sculptors who have what common underlying theme in their work?
(a) Depression.
(b) Beauty.
(c) Love.
(d) Longevity.

11. What effect does the failure of medicines to act quickly have on the depressed person?
(a) It keeps them in a state of anxiety and hopelessness.
(b) Many of them commit suicide.
(c) They get better even though the medicines don't work.
(d) They give up and do something different.

12. Who does Styron compare his psychiatrist to?
(a) A quack.
(b) His wife.
(c) The parish priest in "Madame Bovary."
(d) His friend, Gary.

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

14. What is the second stage of psychological development in depression?
(a) Euphoria.
(b) Physical pain.
(c) Suicide.
(d) Dependency.

15. According to Styron, what is a frequent theme in his novels?
(a) Friendships.
(b) Family support.
(c) Suicide.
(d) Death.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Styron say is the most important consideration in depression?

2. As horrible as this hallucination is, what does Styron say about Bergman, who wrote the script?

3. What is the third stage of psychological development in depression?

4. What is Styron's first dream in many months?

5. According to Styron, what is the greatest fallacy about suicide?

(see the answer keys)

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