Depression is the inability to construct a future.

In May’s existential psychology, mental suffering is often tied to a collapse of meaning, agency, and possibility. Read this way, “depression” names not only low mood but a constriction of time: the person cannot imagine workable projects, commitments, or hopes that extend forward. The future becomes blank or foreclosed, so present action feels pointless and the past can dominate through regret or guilt. The line also implies a therapeutic aim consistent with May’s work—helping a person recover the capacity to envision alternatives, make choices, and re-enter a narrative of becoming. It frames depression as a crisis of imagination and meaning rather than merely a set of symptoms.