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Constructing a Non-depressed Self: Womens Accounts of Recovery from DepressionDepartment of Psychology, St Thomas University, PO Box 4569, 51 Dineen Drive, Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 5G3, Canada, lafrance{at}stu.ca
Department of Psychology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick E3B 6E4, Canada, stoppard{at}unb.ca This study involved a discourse analytic investigation of 15 womens accounts of their experiences of recovery from depression. Participants descriptions of depression revolved around their lives as women, consumed by domestic practices and governed by the needs of others. In contrast, recovery was constructed within a narrative of personal transformation in which participants relinquished their good woman practices and attended to their own needs. However, participants appeared to face a discursive double bind whereby letting go of domestic and caring work and beginning to care for themselves were both central to their wellness and threatening to their identities as women. The analysis explores the ways in which participants negotiated and resisted dominant discourses of femininity in their accounts of recovery from depression.
Key Words: women depression recovery identity discourse analysis
Feminism & Psychology, Vol. 16, No. 3,
307-325 (2006) |
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