The recovery imperative: A critical examination of mid-life women's recovery from depression
- 作者：Wendy O'Brien ; w.obrien@griffith.edu.au
- 关键词：Australia ; Biopolitics ; Depression ; Neo-liberalism ; Recovery imperative ; Governmentality ; Mid-life ; Women
- 刊名：Social Science and Medicine
- 出版年：2012
- 期刊代码：242_02779536
- 类别：med
- 出版时间：August, 2012
- 卷：75
- 期：3
- 页码：573-580
- 文件大小：176 K
摘要
Australia, like other countries in neo-liberal democracies, is grappling with the gendered health 鈥榩roblem鈥?of depression. More concerning is the issue of recovery and relapse, with depression being the third largest cause of disability-adjusted life years (DALY). In addition, advanced liberal discourses of health position recovery as an exercise of individual responsibility to return to a functioning and productive norm and prevent recurrence. This moral enterprise of health articulates a 鈥榬ecovery imperative鈥?which overlooks the gendered context which may have created the conditions for women's depression and may in turn impede their recovery. Drawing on insights from governmentality and feminist post-structuralism, the article critically examines the effects of normalized recovery discourses on women's subjectivities. Data for the study were collected between 2005 and 2007 through in-depth interviews with 31 mid-life Australian women. Three key themes; 鈥榠n鈥?recovery, 鈥榚ight out of ten鈥?recovered, and recovering the authentic self, illustrate how the 鈥榬ecovery imperative鈥?may be implicated in perpetuating the cycle of recovery and relapse.