ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |2 pages

Introduction

part |45 pages

The Facts

chapter |20 pages

What We Teach Our Doctors

chapter |25 pages

What We Also Know

part |32 pages

Historical and Cultural Perspectives

chapter |20 pages

Western History

chapter |12 pages

Cultural Context

part |28 pages

Theoretical and Clinical Concerns

chapter |11 pages

What We May Never Know

chapter |17 pages

Clinical Encounters