Document Detail


Problematizing the neurochemical subject of anti-depressant treatment: The limits of biomedical responses to women's emotional distress.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22674747     Owner:  NLM     Status:  Publisher    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
In this article we situate empirical research into women's problematic experiences of anti-depressant medication within broader debates about pharmaceuticalization and the rise of the neurochemical self. We explore how women interpreted and problematized anti-depressant medication as it impeded their recovery in a number of ways. Drawing upon Foucauldian and feminist work we conceptualize anti-depressants as biotechnologies of the self that shaped how women thought about and acted upon their embodied (and hence gendered) subjectivities. Through the interplay of biochemical, emotional and socio-cultural effects medication worked to shape women's self-in-recovery in ways that both reinscribed and undermined a neurochemical construction of depression. Our analysis outlines two key discursive constructions that focused on women's problematization of the neurochemical self in response to the side-effects of anti-depressant use. We identified how the failure of medication to alleviate depression contributed to women's reinterpretation of recovery as a process of 'working' on the emotional self. We argue that women's stories act as a form of subjugated knowledge about the material and discursive forces shaping depression and recovery. These findings offer a gendered critique of scientific and market orientated rationalities underpinning neurochemical recovery that obscure the embodied relations of affect and the social conditions that enable the self to change.
Authors:
Simone Fullagar; Wendy O'Brien
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Publication Detail:
Type:  JOURNAL ARTICLE     Date:  2012-6-6
Journal Detail:
Title:  Health (London, England : 1997)     Volume:  -     ISSN:  1461-7196     ISO Abbreviation:  -     Publication Date:  2012 Jun 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2012-6-7     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  9800465     Medline TA:  Health (London)     Country:  -    
Other Details:
Languages:  ENG     Pagination:  -     Citation Subset:  -    
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Australia.
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