What does Sisyphus help us understand about coping with depression?

From science to literature to every form of art, it seems we humans have long been fascinated by our nature and the rules that govern our lives. Somehow, we keep coming back to the same big questions about who we are and why we’re here. Literary works, movies, and many forms of scientific inquiry are full of reflections on questions like these: Why do we exist? What is the meaning of life? And how do we deal with the suffering that comes with simply being alive?

One such modern classic, packed with psychological insight, is the work of French philosopher and author Albert Camus. Camus is famously known for questioning the inherent meaning of life (or its lack) and the situation we, as humans, find ourselves in when faced with this meaninglessness. In The Myth of Sisyphus (1955), he even argues that deciding whether life is worth living should be philosophy’s most fundamental concern.

Camus believes that seeking meaning, clarity, and purpose are natural parts of being human and something that inevitably crosses everyone’s mind at some point. But the universe, he observes, offers no answers. It’s indifferent. Silent. There’s no inherent meaning out there for us to discover. Camus calls this tension between our need for meaning and the universe’s refusal to answer “the absurd.”

It sounds a bit bleak, doesn’t it? But Camus doesn’t just list different ways that life is meaningless. He is more concerned with the consequences this “meaninglessness” creates for us. How do we, as humans, respond to this lack of inherent meaning in the world? Do our responses help us? 

In this therapy sketch, let’s explore Camus’s concept of the absurd and use it as a reflective practice to examine how it resembles certain aspects of the psychological suffering we endure and what perspective it offers.

Camus and The Absurd

In his book The Myth of Sisyphus (1955), Camus compares the existential condition we face as humans to the story of Sisyphus from Greek mythology. Sisyphus was punished to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity. Yet every time he reaches the top, it rolls back down. He is trapped in this endless cycle, pushing the boulder only for it to fall again and again. Camus likens this to our own experience: the feelings of entrapment, the struggle to find meaning, repeated failures, and the sense that our days (commuting, going to our endless jobs, and doing it all again tomorrow) can feel just as repetitive and futile as Sisyphus’s task, and it is no less absurd.

So how do we respond to this situation? According to Camus, one response he sees other people give is to give up, either literally or figuratively. For example, some people resort to s**cidal ideation. Others try to escape the meaninglessness of life by seeking solace in certain religions, spirituality, or other belief systems. While these can create the illusion of soothing our discomfort, Camus argues that they don’t resolve the absurdity of life’s meaninglessness at its root. He sees them as an escape. Likewise, according to Camus, our search for meaning, and our failure to find it, can lead to deep despair and a sense of apathy. Yet even that, Camus says, is a form of surrender, a way of giving in to the absurd instead of confronting it.

Camus offers us another alternative. He thinks that instead of escaping our reality, we should face it with radical acceptance, rebellion, and defiance. If life has no inherent meaning waiting to be discovered, why must that necessarily mean we have to escape this life or run away from it? Why must confronting this meaninglessness be an “end”? Why not say “who cares” to the universe, the indifferent, unresponsive universe that doesn’t give us the answers we want, and live fully anyway? So, Camus, despite starting his book with a bit of pessimism, proposes a rather life-affirming solution at the end. We should face the absurd head-on, he says. We should acknowledge life’s ultimate meaninglessness and live anyway. The absurd doesn’t have to be a problem we need to solve. It can remain unsolved. And we live our lives in any way we can, simply because we can, because our lives are ours, they are here, and we are conscious of them. Even though we can’t figure out why we’ve been given a rock and why we’re rolling it, as long as we can roll it, it is our rock. Camus believes that all is well. He famously concludes his “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1955) with the words: “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Depression as existential despair

Interestingly, from a psychological point of view, the kind of suffering that Camus depicts, the frustration of searching for meaning that may not exist, mirrors certain qualities of being depressed.

When we are depressed, we may feel persistent sadness or emptiness, lose interest in things we usually enjoy, feel tired, have trouble concentrating, experience changes in sleep or appetite, feel worthless or guilty, and sometimes even think that life isn’t worth living (APA, 2022). Our current understanding of depression acknowledges that a combination of factors contributes to it. Biological factors such as brain chemistry and epigenetics, cognitive factors such as learned helplessness, relational factors like our early dysfunctional relationships with caregivers, and social factors such as the environment we grew up in all contribute to the emergence of depression.

But if we look at depression from an existential viewpoint, much like Camus, it can also be seen as a kind of existential despair, a natural response when life feels purposeless or when we feel trapped by circumstances beyond our control. In fact, psychological research supports this perspective. For instance, studies show that a lack of perceived meaning in life is strongly associated with depressive symptoms, while interventions that help people clarify values, identify personal goals, or reconnect with a sense of purpose can reduce feelings of hopelessness and improve well-being (Allen, 2022). This suggests that beyond specific biological computations, our experience of meaning, or its absence, can shape how depression manifests and how we respond to it.

What Sisyphus helps us understand about coping with depression

From what Camus tells us, one psychological insight we can draw is that radical acceptance can help us relieve the additional burden that comes from an existential depressive state. Particularly, accepting that we, as humans, are a species that desperately craves meaning, and that there may not be an inherent meaning for us to excavate, can provide us with a renewed sense of existence. This radical acceptance helps us because it also reminds us of our freedom to create our own personal meaning in life. If there is no predefined meaning we must accept as a ready-made answer, then we ourselves can decide what our life should mean. 

Practically speaking, this means we can focus on what we can do, rather than being crushed by the feeling that life “must” be meaningful. We can choose to make small choices that fulfill our hopes and dreams, engage in creative activities, or moments of connection. Just as Sisyphus found purpose in pushing the boulder, we, too, can find purpose and meaning in our daily efforts, the relationships we nurture, and the small ways we shape our lives. 

Psychotherapy with existential concerns in mind

Therapy modalities such as humanistic, existential, and other acceptance-based therapies focus on our existential condition and the psychological suffering it creates for us as their therapeutic targets. 

For example, existential psychotherapies (Frankl, 1946; May et al., 1958; Binswanger, 1963; Yalom, 1980; Schneider & Krug, 2010; van Deurzen; 2010), which draw heavily on thinkers and philosophers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Camus, prioritize our deep desire to find meaning and facilitate psychological healing by helping us discover what it personally means to be alive and how we can live by that. For this end, they use integrative methods such as relationship building, empathetic responding, and interpretation to accompany our search for meaning, instead of focusing too much on our diagnoses or symptoms.

Similarly, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 1999; Hayes et al., 2012) is a cognitive and mindfulness-based therapy that includes components that can help us address existential avoidance and engage the present moment more consciously. For example, it goes beyond traditional cognitive approaches by systematically identifying our personal values and aiming to promote psychological changes that enable us to live in accordance with them. Both existential therapies and ACT can thus help us become more psychologically flexible and resilient, and live the present moment more consciously, with a deeper connection, rather than getting lost in existential despair and avoidance.

Takeaways:

• Humans across science, literature, and art keep returning to questions about meaning, existence, and how to deal with suffering. 
• Albert Camus, among the famous thinkers who have addressed such themes, describes “the absurd” as the tension between our need for meaning and the universe’s indifference, illustrated by the mythological character Sisyphus’s endless struggle.
• Rather than escaping the inherent meaninglessness of life through despair, apathy, or belief systems, Camus encourages radical acceptance of our human condition and living fully in the face of it.
• From an existential perspective, depression can reflect this existential despair, where a lack of perceived meaning contributes to suffering and hopelessness.
• Accepting the absence of inherent meaning in life can free us to create our own meaning through daily actions, relationships, and our creative expression.
• Existential psychotherapies and acceptance-based modalities like ACT focus on existential themes to understand our suffering and to bring about psychological change and healing.

References

Allen, A. R. (2022). Meaninglessness, depression, and s**cidality: A review of the evidence. In R. G. Menzies, R. E. Menzies, & G. A. Dingle (Eds.), Existential concerns and cognitive-behavioral procedures: An integrative approach to mental health (pp. 261–281). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06932-1_16

American Psychiatric Association. (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed., text rev.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787

Binswanger, L. (1963). Being-in-the-world: Selected papers of Ludwig Binswanger. Basic Books.

Camus, Albert (1955). The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-73373-6. (Original publication in 1942).

Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s search for meaning. Beacon Press. (Original work published 1946)

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. Guilford Press.

Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2012). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change (2nd ed.). The Guilford Press.

May, R., Angel, E., & Ellenberger, H. F. (Eds.). (1958). Existence: A new dimension in psychiatry and psychology. Basic Books/Hachette Book Group. https://doi.org/10.1037/11321-000

Schneider, K. J. & Krug, O. T. (2010). Existential-humanistic therapy. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

van Deurzen, E. (2010). Everyday mysteries: A handbook of existential psychotherapy (2nd ed.). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential psychotherapy. Basic Books/Hachette Book Group.

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At Roamers Therapy, our psychotherapists are here to support you through anxiety, depression, trauma and relationship issues, race-ethnicity issues, LGBTQIA+ issues, ADHD, Autism, or any challenges you encounter. Our psychotherapists are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Acceptance, and Commitment Therapy, Person-Centered Therapy, and Gottman Therapy. 

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