Shay
Have you looked at Simone de Beauvoir or Sartre or Fanon at all, in Adieux Sartre talks about the relationship between pride and desperation, also a bit in AntiSemite and Jew.  You can see the metaphysical aspect of desperation in Beauvoirs The Mandarins and She Came to Stay, also in The Ethics of Ambiguity.  Fanone talks about desperation in The Wretched of the Earth.  Lugones touches on it in The chapter Boomerang perception and the Colonizing Gaze. 
Hope this helps a little!
Nicole 
 It is not true that in time you get used to it. Far from healing wounds, time can on the contrary, only make wounds worse- Simone de Beauvoir