Culture And Depression

Some of the most innovative and provocative work on the emotions and illness is occurring in cross-cultural research on depression. Culture and Depression presents the work of anthropologists, psychiatrists, and psychologists who examine the controversies, agreements, and conceptual and methodological problems that arise in the course of such research. A book of enormous depth and breadth of discussion, Culture and Depression enriches the cross-cultural study of emotions and mental illness and leads it in new directions. It commences with a historical study followed by a series of anthropological accounts that examine the problems that arise when depression is assessed in other cultures. This is a work of impressive scholarship which demonstrates that anthropological approaches to affect and illness raise central questions for psychiatry and psychology, and that cross-cultural studies of depression raise equally provocative questions for anthropology.

This volume is the product of two decades of field research by one of Sri Lanka's distinguished anthropological interpreters.

We live in an era of depression, a condition that causes extensive suffering for individuals and families and saps our collective productivity. Yet there remains considerable confusion about how to understand depression. Depression: Integrating Science, Culture, and Humanities looks at the varied and multiple models through which depression is understood. Highlighting how depression is increasingly seen through models of biomedicine—and through biomedical catch-alls such as "broken brains" and "chemical imbalances"—psychiatrist and cultural studies scholar Bradley Lewis shows how depression is also understood through a variety of other contemporary models. Furthermore, Lewis explores the different ways that depression has been categorized, described, and experienced across history and across cultures.

Winner of the 2011 Ursula Gielen Global Psychology Book Award! This award is presented by APA Division 52 to the authors or editors of a book that makes the greatest contribution to psychology as an international discipline and profession. This international volume offers new perspectives on social and psychological aspects of depression. The twenty-one contributors hailing from thirteen countries represent contexts with very different histories, political and economic structures, and gender role disparities. Authors rely on Silencing the Self theory, which details the negative psychological effects that result when individuals silence themselves in close relationships, and the importance of social context in precipitating depression. Specific patterns of thought on how to achieve closeness in relationships (self-silencing schema) are known to predict depression. This book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the link between depressive symptoms and self-silencing occurs across a range of cultures. Silencing the Self Across Cultures explains why women's depression is more widespread than men's, and why the treatment of depression lies in understanding that a person's individual psychology is inextricably related to the social world and close relationships. Several chapters describe the transformative possibilities of community-driven movements for disadvantaged women that support healing through a recovery of voice, as well as the need to counter violations of human rights as a means of reducing women's risk of depression. Bringing the work of these researchers together in one collection furthers international dialogue about critical social factors that affect the rising rates of depression around the globe.

Bipolar Expeditions' is an ethnographic inquiry into mania and depression in their American cultural and historical contexts. The text explores the complex darkness and stigma associated with those deemed 'mad.

This book presents an analysis of contemporary society based on the experimental and interpretative models produced by the experimental analysis of behavior, in order to think about the ways in which current social contingencies can affect the life of individuals making them more depressive. It addresses the phenomenon of depression in a broad way. From its conception as a scientific concept to sociological explanations to explain its emergence, the book presents in a very well founded way the necessary knowledge to clarify, understand, and seek treatment and prevention for this major social evil. The authors begin with a description of the current diagnostic parameters of major depressive disorder followed by alarming global epidemiological data showing that depression has affected all races, social classes, genders and creeds. They then address the topic departing from an approach based on the experimental analysis of behavior, but also in dialogue with other philosophical and conceptual traditions, to show how current social relationships contribute to the development of major depressive disorder. Depression as a Cultural Phenomenon in Postmodern Society will be a valuable tool for health professionals looking for a wider approach to depression prevention and treatment. An approach that looks not only to the isolated individual, but takes into account the whole social context that contributes to cause or to prevent major depressive disorder.

Examines the response of American leftist writers from the 1930s to the rise of mass culture, and to the continued propagation of the values of consumerism during the Depression. It traces in the work of Kenneth Fearing and Nathaniel West certain theoretical positions associated with the Frankfurt school (especially Walter Benjamin) and with contemporary theorists of postmodernism.