Interpersonal Relationships I: Impersonal Interpersonal

Abstract

Disturbances to interpersonal relationships are an important part of experiences of depression and in Iran, as a collectivist culture, this importance is seen ever more clearly. Focusing on the tensions in the social sphere of relationships and using Heidegger’s phenomenology, the conflict felt between an individual with depression and her society’s misunderstanding of the nature of the illness is highlighted. Using the first-person accounts, it is shown how a misconception of the illness and the resulting stigmatisation of depression affects a depressed person’s experiences of the illness and her space of possibilities in seeking help for the disorder. The conflict between one and her society is experienced as a lack of empathy, which colours the depressed person’s experience of interpersonal relationships.