VERONIKA DECIDES TO DIE
The book, written by Paulo Coelho, begins with the main character Veronica getting bored with her monotonous life and the meaninglessness of being only a small part of the world and deciding to commit suicide. A failed suicide attempt led to Veronica being admitted to a mental hospital. This process of staying in the hospital has pushed Veronika to question herself and her life deeply.
“I didn't know there were other Veronikas inside me that I could love.”
Veronika has lost hope for the future; she cannot take action because she is afraid that her usual order will be disrupted and something will change, and cares about what others want, and even renounces her wishes for them when it comes time.
To him, life was uniform, and Veronica was a tiny part of this uniform world. The future waiting for her was very clear, and Veronika decided to commit suicide in order not to live this future, but most importantly to escape the fear and distress created by this future, which she thought she could not change. However, the suicide attempt failed and Veronika was imprisoned in a mental hospital. So how did Veronica come to have the courage she couldn't gain to commit suicide to change the future she believed she was doomed to
Suicide is an act that is performed physically and starts in the mind first to get rid of mental pain. A person has first killed his hopes and existence in his mind. That's what takes courage. If a person has killed himself in his mind and given up on life, harming himself is the easy part of suicide. In short, the thing that drives us to live is death itself, which is the source of our joy of living. Knowing that one day he will die and that he can't help it scares a person, as a result, he clings to life by trying to forget the reality of death.
Veronika has always cared about what her family will think when making decisions about her life, she has always been afraid of disappointing them. He thought he was reciprocating his family's love by not disappointing them. The life she achieved at the end of the path she had drawn for herself by putting the wishes of others ahead of her own wishes did not satisfy Veronika; she had lost her love for herself and for living. He didn't have the courage to change his life and see that he had let others down. Suicide, on the other hand, according to him, was an act that would allow him to escape from his life, where he would be free as a result, he had made his own decision and hated. Thus, he attempted suicide, but he could not achieve success from this attempt. But the drugs he took had damaged his heart and he had a very short life left. As death approached, Veronica's desire to live increased. He realized that there were different aspects that he could love and that he had actually chosen his one-straight life himself. He wanted to get out of the hospital, explore. At the end of the book, she fell in love with Eduard, and they ran away from the hospital with him. So that Veronika won't actually die, Dr. We learn that Igor is setting up a little game for Veronika. Although it may not sound ethical, Dr. Igor reminded Veronika of the fear of death, which is the source of the joy of living, and with this fear, Veronika wanted to hold on to life by discovering herself.
When we look at the psychological elements and patients included in the book, the psychological conditions of the period of the book, the minds of individuals with mental health problems and the stigma are really beautifully processed. Zedka with a depressive disorder, Mari with a panic disorder and Eduard with a schizophrenic disorder... When we look at the thoughts of all these individuals and the treatments applied to them, we can see in detail the search for the basis of mental disorders and the effects of disorders on the lives of individuals, as well as witnessing the developments in the field of psychology from the past to the present.
If you believe that you are also in the dark and believe that the only way to be swallowed up by the darkness is to be swallowed up by the darkness, I recommend you to read this book. Throughout the book, you will see that every darkness has a light. I hope you can discover the bright side.
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