Shane Stricker 28.04.2011 Hungarian Studies
Overcoming Gloomy Sunday
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, in 2006 Hungary had the second highest suicide rate in the developed world, just under Korea (see chart below (Source: OECD)). As for male suicides, Magyar males commit more suicides than anyone else in the OECD countries. Mental health problems, anxiety, unsettling shifts in systems of law, and a tragic history are all to blame for the alarmingly high Hungarian suicide rate. History hasn’t been kind to Hungarians. Adam LeBor of The Independent writes that Hungarian history “is littered with crushing defeats, foreign occupations, failed uprisings and doomed revolutions, all of which have permeated the national historical consciousness.” The most recent Hungarian wartime victory was accomplished by King Mátyás in the 15th century. So as far as wars and revolutions are concerned, it hasn’t been a great couple of centuries. That’s not to
say that Hungarians aren’t proud of their attempts. The failed Revolution of 1956 is still celebrated today. In 1920, the Treaty of Trianon sliced Hungary down to one-third its original size, giving the land to surrounding territories. It was another blow to the Hungarian psyche. Historically, suicide hasn’t been seen as a shameful act by Hungarians as it is in many countries. Many very famous and loved Hungarians committed suicide, like the poet Attila Jozsef, after whom many streets have been named and many statues erected. Even Istvan Szechényi, the politician considered by many to be “the greatest Hungarian,” killed himself in 1860. A square in almost every Hungarian city is named after Szechényi and his gloomy face marks the 5000 forint. Dr. Bela Buda, a psychiatrist involved in research on Hungarian depression at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, believes such historical figures have a significant impact on the Hungarian suicide rate. “The population has a positive attitude to suicide,” says Dr. Buda. “‘He was right, he was a brave man,’ many people will say. ‘He didn't want to face more suffering, so he accepted death heroically.’” This positive attitude may help Hungarians to cope with suicide and even make something honorable out of it, but when suicide is honored, does it become more frequent? Dr. Buda believes so, highlighting the fact that still today depressed Hungarians try to end their lives in the same ways that their historical “role models” did. Many have attempted suicide on the same tracks that famous poet Attila Jozsef threw himself onto in 1937. Later in The Independent article, Adam LeBor writes, “[the Hungarians’] feeling of helplessness was exacerbated under communism, when life was controlled by the almost allembracing Marxist state.” Due to the many defeats in war, Hungarians haven’t always been in control of their own country. In the last century, the governing of Hungary has been redefined to accommodate the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the Nazi take-over, Stalinism and the Rákosi era, a parliamentary democracy, and finally Westernization. Such frequent shifting of control has left the Hungarian people more than a little dazed. According to Dr. Buda, the main reason why these shifts in government have led to Hungarian depression is their affect on the family. The turgid political climate of the past century has broken up families and kinships throughout Hungary. Buda says, “This huge horizontal and vertical mobility meant that a lot of people
became isolated, alienated, as kinship systems, family ties were destroyed.” This splitting of the family has been further enforced by the ongoing Westernization of Hungary. In 2004 Hungary joined the European Union and has since been striving to ditch the puszta image and become a thriving global country. Becoming globalized, however, sometimes means adopting Western philosophies such as independence. Krisztina Fenyo wrote in an article for The Hungary Report Monthly Digest that “Hungarians often say that they are caught in between two worlds, East and West, and feel that they are 'too western' for their geographical location.” In the same article, Gloomy Sunday playwright Peter Muller adds, “[Hungarians] live in a very strange position of the world. We always try to stick to the Western culture, we try to escape from the Eastern mentality and somehow we are in a limbo, we don't belong to anybody, it's a kind of loneliness.” Young Hungarians deal better with Westernization than their parents or grandparents, which is certainly a positive advancement for young people, but it also furthers the rift between generations of family members. Krisztina Brouwer of Hunreal magazine says that “young Hungarians are… becoming much more individualistic with a much shorter timeorientation than their original Hungarian cultural heritage would suggest.” Certainly the push toward Western ideals has changed and stressed the dynamics of Hungarian families and the tug between East and West has left Hungarian in a perpetual state of indecisiveness and anxiety. Some Hungarians may insist that the suicide and mortality rate is exaggerated due to the instability of the Roma population in Hungary. According to Professor Mária Kopp, Director of the Institute for Behavioral Science at the Semmelweiss University for Medical Sciences in Budapest, the idea that Hungarian morality rate is strongly affected by the Roma population is false. Professor Kopp writes, “The correlation is clear, and it does not apply just to the Roma… We have found that the decisive factor [for the high mortality rate] is chronic stress, encountered when someone feels unable to overcome problems, to find a role.” Kopp reiterates what Muller said about Hungarians being “in limbo” between Eastern tradition and Western modernization. While Hungarians are very proud of their country and their culture, all this transitioning has left many in an awkward place and struggling, as Kopp says, to find their role.
Fenyo writes that “About twenty-five percent of the [Hungarian] population suffers from anxiety illnesses, and a very large part of it coupled with depression.” These anxieties and depressions had undoubtedly led Hungarians to alcoholism. Dr Mária Holzberger, head physician and deputy director of the National Alcoholism Institute, insists in an interview for Central Europe Review that alcoholism in Hungary is a very important problem that is largely ignored. Holzberger criticizes local Hungarian news, suggesting that they are leading the general public toward stories that are sensational and away from the true problems. She says, “If some unfortunate young person dies as the result of an overdose, the newspapers are full of articles lamenting this unnecessary waste of life. That so and so many middle-aged people die every year as a
result of alcoholic intoxication is not considered to be news.” Holzberger goes on to say, “If we are continually furnished with statistical evidence that so and so many people die of cirrhosis of the liver every year, so and so many of alcohol-induced dementia and so and so many of cardiac problems brought on by alcoholism… then sooner or later someone will sit up and take notice.” In 2009, according to the World Health Organization, Hungary had the 4th highest alcohol consumption in the world (right), up from its position of 12th place in the 1970’s. Of the OECD countries, Hungary ranks second to last in life expectancy at 61.8 years, less than that of Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Along with being stuck between Eastern tradition and Western modernization, looking up to suicidal role models, and having a depressingly defeated history, or perhaps because of these things, Hungarians create and obtain stress in the workplace. Professor Mária Kopp insists that “the workplace has a defining role in shaping a person’s mental and physical well-being.”
After all, it’s where much of a person’s time is spent. Kopp describes a situation that she explains is all too common in Hungarian work culture. She says that, “…a hostile boss can trigger a chain reaction. Staff naturally are not going to trust a boss who does not trust them, and so a vicious cycle is set up in which the working atmosphere becomes ever more poisonous, and it ends up with people making life hell for one another.” In 2007, just after Kopp gave the interview for this article, she gave the opening address about stress in the workplace for the American Psychosomatic Society’s annual conference, which was held in Budapest. Kopp says that Budapest was specifically chosen as the location for the conference because, of all the countries in the EU, Hungary has the worst record for psychiatric problems stemming from work conditions.
“Sunday is gloomy, my hours are slumberless Dearest the shadows I live with are numberless Little white flowers will never awaken you Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you Angels have no thought of ever returning you Would they be angry if I thought of joining you?” -Rezső Seress
The most popular and relevant example of Hungarian depression is famous Hungarian poet Rezső Seress who wrote the very popular piece entitled Gloomy Sunday. Above is a verse of Gloomy Sunday, translated by Sam M. Lewis. Rezső Seress is another Hungarian artist who committed suicide – in a really awful way. First he jumped from a window in Budapest in 1968 and survived. Shortly after, in a hospital, Seress choked himself to death with a guitar string. How’s that for a great role model? Krisztina Fenyo writes that Gloomy Sunday has since become known as “the suicide anthem” because many who committed suicide in the years following its rise into popularity left the poem’s words in their suicide notes. According to Fenyo, “…many
people kill themselves in Hungary, but they also often choose brutal methods: they jump down wells, hang themselves, or drink pesticides.” Perhaps Seress, who chose to get creative with a guitar string, is to blame for inspiring these kinds of escapes. Pessimism dominates Hungarian culture with common phrases like, “Worse than yesterday, but better than tomorrow” and “I’m happy when I’m crying.” Pessimism is practiced in daily traditions such at refusing to clink glasses of beer because it is a reminder of the Austrian rule over a decade ago. Even the Hungarian national anthem is kind of a downer, a line translating into, “Have mercy, god, on the Hungarian / who is tossed by disasters.” To try to pinpoint the causes, perhaps the question isn’t “who is to blame?” but instead the decidedly Hungarian “who isn’t to blame?” The Treaty of Trianon gave chunks of precious Greater Hungary away to the surrounding countries, so Romania, Czechoslovakia, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Coats, and Slovenes are to blame. The shifting political systems broke up Hungarian families, so Communism and Socialism are to blame. Western values clashed with Hungarian traditions so modernization is to blame. Hungarian bosses are untrusting of their employees so paranoid bosses are to blame. Rezső Seress is to blame for youngsters offing themselves on his behalf. Alcoholism is way up, so maybe alcohol is to blame? Hungarian have certainly have had a string of bad luck, but while playing the blame game, one can’t help but consider posing the question, “How much of this is self-induced?”
Work Cited
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Brouwer, Krisztina. "Hungarian Culture: Why it is as it is?." Under the Frog. Hunreal, 2008. Web. 28 Apr 2011.
Coppage, Doug. "Differences of Life and Culture in Hungary and America." Hungarian Culture, Language & Relocation Resources. Filolog, 29 May 2007. Web. 28 Apr 2011. <http://www.filolog.com/crossculture_usa_hu.html>.
Fenyo, Krisztina. "Are Hungarians The Gloomiest Nation On Earth?." Hungary Report Monthly Digest. May (1997): Print.
"Health Statistics." NationMaster. Web. 28 Apr 2011. <http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_lif_exp_hea_yea-health-life-expectancyhealthy-years>.
Kosztolรกnyi, Gusztรกv. "Hitting Back at the Bottle." Central Europe Review 2.24 (2000): n. pag. Web. 28 Apr 2011.
Lebor, Adam. "Happier Hungarians shake the suicidal blues ." Independent 09 Aug 1998: n. pag. Web. 28 Apr 2011.
"OECD Table of Suicide Rates." Suicide Rates, Around the World. Web. 28 Apr 2011. <http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/suicide-rates-around-the-world/>.