Making sense of the evolving nature of depression narratives and their inherent conflicts

Abstract

Originally a psychiatric diagnosis fashioned by Western psychiatry in the twentieth century, depression evolved to encompass varying lineages of discourse and care. This article elucidates some of the current challenges—as well as emerging discourses—influencing the category of depression. Depression-like experiences are shaped by (at times conflicting) subjectivities, claims to knowledge, material realities, social contexts and access to resources. With no unified understanding of the category of ‘depression’ available, lay people, social scientists and neuroscientists, GPs, psychiatrists, talking therapists and pharmaceutical companies all attempt to shape narratives of depression. The current paper focuses on patient narratives about depression—in the context of these wider debates—to better elucidate the ways in which depression discourses are publicly developing along varying lines. In conclusion, the paper suggests that we could better conceptualise the resulting ‘depression(s)’ with concepts such as ‘society of mind’ and notions of subjectivity unbounded by individuals.