ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author follows depression into the context of an indigenous medical system. She explores the appropriation and translation of the concept of depression and its underlying theories, psychiatric framings and mind/body distinctions in invented Ayurvedic psychiatry. Institutionalized Ayurvedic psychiatry is mainly practised at the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital and the Ayurveda College in Kottakkal, Malappuram district in Kerala. The author discusses the five key aspects of her research and analysis that arise from depression into the indigenous medical system. These include the production of Ayurvedic psychiatric expertise and the professionalization of this field; embodied minds; the politics and pragmatics of nosologies and their translations; Ayurvedic psychiatric treatment; and the politics of recognition. The author traces the establishment of Ayurvedic psychiatry as a separate discipline, and considers the processes involved in its legitimization as scientific and authentic.
