Depression is one of the most prevalent and least understood
emotional problems which afflicts individuals in North American society
Along with feelings of alienation and anomie, it leads the list of the
modern individual's emotional complaints. It has been recognized as a
problem since antiquity and descriptions of the symptoms of depression
have been remarkably similar over time. Despite the general agreement
in descriptions of the disorder, modern researcher, like their ancient
counterparts, have consistently complained about their slow progress in
understanding and treating the problem. Depression has been described
as paradoxical, elusive and perplexing. (Beck, 1967)
One of the most striking and perplexing aspects of depression in
North America is the well established fact that women experience and are
treated for depression in far greater numbers than men (Weissmand and
Klerman, 1977) Many social workers in the field are well aware of the
higher incidence of depression among women as they are frequently confronted
by female clients who report that they feel sad, hopeless, and
unable to cope with their lives. These complaints may range from mild
but pervasive feelings of apathy, fatigue, boredom and gloom (frequently
called the housewife's complaint) to intense and overwhelming feelings
of despair which too often lead the woman to a desparate suicide attempt.
Both the prevalence and the seriousness of depression in women is
a cause for concern among mental health practitioners. Yet, except for
research exploring forms of depression which only effect women (i.e. post
partum depression) , there has been little systematic research into the
causes and treatment of depression, specifically in women. However,
there have been indications of greater interest in this area within the
past ten years. Renewed interest has, in part, been sparked by the advent
of modern feminism and feminist critiques of the mental health system' s understanding of female psychology and its treatment of troubled women.
Feminists have focussed their attention on analyzing women's role
in modern society and on explicating the effects which the feminine role
has on the emotional difficulties which many women experience. Feminists
have challenged many commonly accepted assumptions about the nature of
femininity and have attacked the mental health community's acceptance
of this traditional view of women. They have criticized treatment programs
which are based on what they consider to be a distorted view of
women and have proposed alternate ways of helping emotionally troubled
women.
The
feminist challenge to the mental health system has special relevancy
for the field of depression, the most common of all of women's
psychiatric complaints. The challenge has raised many important issues
for mental health practitioners. It has focussed attention the the
links between women and depression and has raised questions about the
ways in which practitioners analyze and treat depressed women.
This paper is an attempt to examine the links between depression
and women, and to look at the issues involved, in understanding and
treating the problem. The first section examines the problem from the
clinician and clinical researchers point of view. It looks at depression
as a psychiatric problem. How prevalent is it? How is it defined?
What causes it? How can it be treated? The issues which are dealt
with in this section are: a) findings in the research on prevalence of
depression, with particular emphasis on findings of female preponderance;
b) the definition of clinical depression, the assumptions on which the
definition rests and the problems involved in defining depression; and
c) an examination of the 4 dominant explanatory and therapeutic schemes
related to depression (organic, psychoanalytic, cognitive, and behaviorist
theories). The emphasis in section C is on critically analyzing the major
underlying assumptions which each theory makes in constructing and
treating the depressed woman, The research evidence on which each theory
rest is examined. Feminist and other critiques of the major theories of
treatment approaches are presented.
Section II looks at the feminist view of depression and women.
Issues which are examined in this section are: a) feminist analysis and
critique of the mental health community's treatment of emotionally troubled
women; b) the feminist analysis of women's role in society and the
relationship between women's role and depression; c) feminist approaches
to working with depressed women. The focus in this section is on explicating
the underlying assumptions of the feminist approach. Relevant
research findings are presented as well as critiques of the feminist
position.
The final section summarizes those aspects of theory and practice
which the author sees as significant to social workers who are working
with depressed women. This section Includes a discussion of some of
the conclusions which the author has reached about working with depressed
women in this society, and suggestions for what the author hopes is a
more integrated approach to the problem.
In order to facilitate the analysis of the major issues and approaches
to working with depressed women, a case example is presented in Section I
and used throughout this paper. The case study is based on Sylvia Plath’s
novel The Bell Jar which chronicles the life of Ester Greenwood, a 20
year old college student
who becomes seriously depressed as she attempts
to define her own identity as a woman and artist in 20th century North
American society. This semiautobiographical novel can be taken as a document
of Plath's understanding and explication of what it means to be
a depressed woman. As it was written by a woman, who both endured and
ultimately succumbed to that experience, it seems an appropriate choice
for a case example and one which provides some insight into the desparate
struggle which depressed women so often endure.
The problem of depression and women is complex, and there is considerable
disagreement among theoreticians, researchers and practitioners
about how it can best understood and treated. the lack of clarity
in the field and the conflicting approaches to the problem have implications
for the women who seek help from the mental health community. As social
workers, we are intimately involved in the problem of depression and
women. As a profession we often, stand at the interface between the woman
within her social world and the psychiatric treatment world. Frequently,
it is we social workers who help a woman embark on her career as a
mental patient. It is often our job to make an initial assessment of
the woman 's mental state, and to extract relevant details of her life for
presentation to the treatment community. In some settings, we may be
engaged in the treatment process itself. We are often involved in the
social ramifications of depression for the woman and her family. We
may be asked to provide practical or emotional support for her, and on
some occasions we are responsible for placing her children in foster
care. In view of our extensive professional involvement with depressed
women, It is important for us to be sensitive to the many issues in the field,
and as a profession, to approach this problem with as broad and
comprehensive an understanding of it as possible. It is hoped that
this paper will be helpful in adding some clarity to this complex and
difficult problem. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41951 |
| Date | January 1978 |
| Creators | Hathaway, Lorraine |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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