Dis-ordering Depression in Women

Abstract

Within psychology, psychosocial theories proposed to explain depression are assumed to have general applicability and, therefore, to account for depression in women. Although the body is implicated in both the expression and aetiology of depression, psychosocial models do not address the female body. Moreover, in development of psychosocial theories the meaning of depressive experiences from women's standpoint has been ignored. These and other lacunae are attributed to uncritical pursuit of research on depression within a positivist-realist paradigm and a taken-for-granted stance with respect to the reductionistic biological form of medical model. Drawing on recent theorizing from a feminist and social constructionist perspective, in concert with attempts to reconcile socio-linguistic with material-embodied dimensions of human existence, directions for developing a materialist-discursive understanding of depression in women are explored.