THE OMNIPOTENT WORD OF MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS AND THE SILENCE OF DEPRESSION: AN ARGUMENT FOR KRISTEVA’S THERAPEUTIC APPROACH

In cases of depression where linguistic meaning has collapsed, there is good reason to believe that a long-term strategy for recovery must include rehabilitating the depressive person’s capacity for meaningful speech. This requires that the patient participate actively in interpreting her own pain....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of feminist approaches to bioethics 2016-03, Vol.9 (1), p.1-26
Main Author: Culbertson, Carolyn
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:In cases of depression where linguistic meaning has collapsed, there is good reason to believe that a long-term strategy for recovery must include rehabilitating the depressive person’s capacity for meaningful speech. This requires that the patient participate actively in interpreting her own pain. In this essay, I argue that medical diagnosis can tempt patients, particularly women, to circumvent this process of interpretation. To explain this danger, I draw on Julia Kristeva’s clinical analyses of depression and recent studies on the correlation between depression and self-silencing.
ISSN:1937-4585
1937-4577
DOI:10.3138/ijfab.9.1.1