It could be that in a society that places so much emphasis on personal confession, self-examination and introspection, we feel more able to admit to insecurity.As clinical psychologist Elisabeth Marx says: “Depression is more easily detected than two decades ago. As psychotherapist Neil Crawford says: “It’s not as if envy didn’t exist in the middle-ages. You just have to see Shakespeare to understand that.”Indeed the rise in figures for depression may be misleading. Most dramatically, the suicide rate for men aged 15-24 has risen by over 71 per cent in the last decade – it is now the second most common cause of death among the under 25s.But there is less evidence to suggest that this discord can be attributed to the ills of capitalism and social comparison. According to the mental health charity, Mind, depressive disorders are now the biggest single reason for psychiatric hospital admissions. Otherwise, what similarities are there between the two men? Not many.

Both are over six feet tall; both have heroically large noses.”Physical resemblance is not everything,” said Ms Saintlion. “Can you think of any other French actor capable of measuring up to such a role? No.”Depardieu told Le Monde that he had no hesitation in accepting the role of the General. “He is after all the greatest Frenchman of the century, whatever one might think of some of the things he did.” But as the newspaper commented: “When one is, whether one likes it or not, the nation’s favourite actor, one plays the nation’s heroes.”. Never mind the beach towels. What about the beaches?

The towels – and the sun loungers that they are used to privatise – have never after all been much of a feature of the West Irish coast But quiet, unspoiled beaches are as common as the rain. And local people are up in arms at the way that the strands, traditionally open to everyone, are increasingly being appropriated by foreign holidaymakers.
Some 500 foreigners – German, French, Belgian, Dutch and British – buy holiday homes in West Cork every year. And more and more are blocking off the beaches in front of their sea views.Says Jim O’Donnell, an Independent on Sunday reader and successful businessman in Skibbereen: “People come across from Europe with the idea that private property is God-given They fence everything off, and think that is normal.

They come here because they love Ireland – and then try to make it like home. One German company even tried to keep people off an entire island, putting notices along the shores saying landing was forbidden.”The first signs of a political reaction seem to be appearing. Aine Ni Chonaill, a teacher from Clonakilty, stood in this summer’s election promising to “return Ireland to the Irish”.She lost heavily, but is nothing if not consistent. Approached by an English journalist, she snubbed him: “My discourse is with my compatriots and my government.” Then, West Cork courtesy reasserting itself, she added: “But I wish you well” – and hung up.Sadly, the Irish are ahead of foreigners in fencing off mountainsides that used to be just as open to all as the beaches.This summer Jim O’Donnell took a friend on a walk he has been making for 30 years to the Warrior’s Grave, a prehistoric monument on Cork’s Mount Gabriel. “Stephen Fry recently announced he thought he had his breakdown because he pursued success to the exclusion of everything else, imagining that would lead to happiness.”James cites various studies that reflect these self-punishing trends, including one British survey that shows a rise in neurotic symptoms such as phobias and depression – from 22 per cent in 1977 to 31 per cent by 1986. “People are more likely to feel useless – that they’re fat, and ugly – because of the increasing amount of social comparison.” Even the privileged aren’t immune, argues James.

An inevitable sense of failure, in turn, can cause low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, a brain chemical important in regulating aggression, compulsion and depression. A vicious circle of aspiration, disappointment and depression is created.”There is a much higher proportion of people with low serotonin levels”, he says. If they’re let down they blame themselves.” Young women, he says, are especially affected by the gap between what they want and what they achieve – in terms of looks, relationships and career.Driven by a desire for status and success both sexes, says James, create higher and higher goals. He also believes media and film, predictably, are much to blame for this sense of widespread inadequacy.
James explains: “Society can no longer fulfil people’s huge expectations so you end up with the concept of relative deprivation People feel entitled to the car, the girl, etc. James, presenter of The Chair – a series of analytical interviews for the BBC – suggests that unrealistic expectations, fuelled by advanced capitalism, have led to more dissatisfaction and “emotional malaise”. In a couple of weeks, he will make the point in person by joining the Ramblers’ Association on a walk on closed moorland above Hebden Bridge.A talented potter I know in West Cork lives down a tiny, overgrown lane (locally called “a fierce boreen”) so hard to find that one day in his first month there, he had to go into a pub to ask where he lived.