Discourses of Depression

Abstract

In the previous chapter I introduced the dominant understanding of depression and its critiques. Yet, I have seen psychiatric discourses as mostly ‘transparent’ (even though subject to critique), as merely carrying information about a disorder which is ‘ out there’ to be viewed, diagnosed and treated. In this chapter I explore depression as a discursive construct. Taking on board two instances of mainstream psychiatric discourse, I shall analyse how they construct the illness. I shall then consider how both these findings impinge upon the discourses I collected in my research, both in terms of their viability in institutional context and in terms of their own form.