This book by Ann Cvetkovich uses memoir as a research method, combined with a critical essay in order to write about depression in an alternative way to the conventional medicalized models. Instead of using these conventional models, she writes about depression as a socio-cultural phenomenon that develops out of the lived experience of neo-liberal capitalism. Building on this idea she deconstructs the idea that depression, and the feelings associated with it should not be seen as negative, because it can become a sight for transformation (through writing, crafting, habitual rituals, etc), both in the public and private sphere.
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Political depression: This concept combines Cvetkovich’s thinking about depression and places it in a modern, …show more content…
The feeling of being stuck is how depression manifests itself in daily life, as a blockage, an impasse, that prevents one from any productive potential (21). This productive potential matters to the feeling of depression and being stuck because although one feels ‘depressed’ or has feelings of melancholy you do not lose the ability to complete everyday tasks (grocery shopping, walking the dog, etc) but it is your creative and productive potential that suffers. Cvetkovich concludes that depression “should be envisioned as a form of being stuck, both literal and metaphorical, that requires new ways of living, or more concretely, moving” (26).
Depression: Viewed as a social and cultural phenomenon that has deep historical roots. Cvetkovich moves away from the conventional understanding of depression as biological. and instead she views depression as a feeling, one that is able to offer insight into different kinds of knowledge. Through this understanding depression should become a site of transformation because “depression is about hope and happiness, about how to live a better life by embracing rather than glossing over bad feelings”
3.
Political depression: This concept combines Cvetkovich’s thinking about depression and places it in a modern, …show more content…
The feeling of being stuck is how depression manifests itself in daily life, as a blockage, an impasse, that prevents one from any productive potential (21). This productive potential matters to the feeling of depression and being stuck because although one feels ‘depressed’ or has feelings of melancholy you do not lose the ability to complete everyday tasks (grocery shopping, walking the dog, etc) but it is your creative and productive potential that suffers. Cvetkovich concludes that depression “should be envisioned as a form of being stuck, both literal and metaphorical, that requires new ways of living, or more concretely, moving” (26).
Depression: Viewed as a social and cultural phenomenon that has deep historical roots. Cvetkovich moves away from the conventional understanding of depression as biological. and instead she views depression as a feeling, one that is able to offer insight into different kinds of knowledge. Through this understanding depression should become a site of transformation because “depression is about hope and happiness, about how to live a better life by embracing rather than glossing over bad feelings”