One of Germany's greatest goalkeepers, Robert Enke experienced his first bout of depression in 2003 when a critical mistake during a match led to a 3-2 victory for Novelda against Barça (The Telegraph, 2009). Since then, Robert felt fear every time a shot was fired towards his goal (The New York Times, 2009). His depression deepened further when his daughter died from a debilitating illness (The Guardian, 2009). Enke and his wife adopted a baby girl, Leila, but Enke was afraid she would be taken away if her illness was revealed to the world (The Guardian, 2009). The fear of being discovered only made his condition worse. Tragically, he committed suicide on November 10, 2009 (The Guardian, 2009). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayTheoryCrook (2008) suggested that mental illness is often the cause of suicide and that suicide was the increasing choice of young adults. People who have suicidal thoughts often feel that no one seems capable of solving their problem (Huddle & Schleifer, 2012), such as Robert Enke. Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory is best used to explain the case of Robert Enke. As we can see, Enke was simply looking to express himself on the pitch. During this time he could not get out of sadness and shadow, which he certainly made a mistake during a match between Barça and Novelda. After that, he became afraid of failure and completely lost confidence in his ability to catch the ball. According to Cooper (2007), cognitive dissonance is notably the inconsistency between a person's expectations and experience. This statement argues that Enke may suffer from cognitive dissonance because he simultaneously possesses two contradictory cognitions. Additionally, a person will experience invisible psychological tension whenever they experience cognitive dissonance (Chatzisarantis et al., 2008). As mentioned earlier, Enke's daughter Lara died of heart disease when she was two years old (The Guardian, 2009). Enke had tried with all his might to accept this fact. However, he can't get over his daughter's death and can't stop thinking about her. He can detect that Enke's inside was struggling as his attitude and behavior clashed. Enke's case is consistent with Cooper's (2007) statement that cognitive dissonance will cause psychological discomfort (as cited in Stalder and Anderson, 2014). Enke never tried to hide the fact that he suffered from severe depression. However, their adopted baby, Leila, would be taken away if her illness was revealed (The Scotsman, 2009). He was afraid of losing his second daughter. So Enke was trying to hide the fact. This is consistent with Festinger's assertion that the greater the discomfort, the greater the desire to reduce the inconsistency between two cognitive elements (Mills & Harmon-Jones, 2009). This may explain why he cannot manage his cognitive dissonance well and why his depression gets worse and worse. A person failing in an important task can lead to depression (Petersen, Compas, Brooks-Gunn, Stemmler, Grant, 1993). Additionally, a depressed person may be more sensitive to dissonance effects (Stalder and Anderson, 2014). The case of Enke therefore serves as an example based on these statements. Based on Enke's case, cognitive dissonance could be the cause of his depression. To make matters worse, his severe depression triggered his eventual suicide. Applying Festinger's cognitive dissonance theory to Enke's case, we can see that there is an explanation for what he was feeling before committing suicide...