Depression: A Social Feeling

Depression: A Social Sense Book Description Can depression be conceived as an experience rooted in the political and private sphere rather than a biological or medical phenomenon? Does depression, which can manifest itself as a chronic feeling of apathy, inertia, or helplessness, have ties to histories of colonialism, dispossession, and displacement? Is it possible to resort to the concept of acedia, a Christian project, in order to illuminate the distance between left melancholy and political depression? In Depression: A Social Sense, Ann Cvetkovich sets out to trace the cultural, political, and race-based history of depression, keeping a critical distance from medical and scientific models. By positioning his article about the depression and writer's block he experienced at the beginning of his academic life at the center of the book, he presents a multi-layered archive study from the spiritual practices of the first Christian monks and indigenous people to colonialism, slavery and genocide, from political exhaustion to various identities, including queer. While wandering the dead-end streets of depression, she resorts to the restorative and soothing qualities of daily habits, feminist handicrafts, queer performance and spiritual practices. Depression, which is a reasonable reaction that is likely to arise in the face of what neoliberal capitalism offers to humanity; A daring move from Ann Cvetkovich, who challenges established arguments by interpreting it as a social and even political expression... (From the Promotional Bulletin)