In his book The Noonday Demon: An Anatomy of Depression, Andrew Solomon quotes or references Julia Kristeva to illustrate how language fails to capture the experience of severe depression and melancholia.

Key aspects of Kristeva's ideas on language, as referenced by Solomon, include:

The Muteness of Depression: Kristeva argues that the "madness" of depression is marked by a "lack of meaning" and a "glaring and inescapable" silence, which she describes as an inability to speak or find meaning.

• Melancholics as "Unbelieving in Language": In Black Sun, she describes melancholics as "mute and steadfast devotees of their own inexpressible container" who stop creating meaning.
• The Breakdown of the Self: For the "speaking being," life is supposed to be meaningful, but this breaks down in depression, where the depressed person is trapped in "the blankness of asymbolia" or a "chaotic flux". 

Solomon utilizes these insights to explain why depression is difficult to articulate in a "narrative governed by reason," as the sufferer is pushed into a space where traditional language cannot function.