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Depression, once a subfield of neurosis, has become the most diagnosed mental disorder in the world. Why and how has depression become such a topical illness and what does it tell us about changing ideas of the individual and society? Alain Ehrenberg investigates the history of depression and depressive symptoms across twentieth-century psychiatry, showing that identifying depression is far more difficult than a simple diagnostic distinction between normal and pathological sadness - the one constant in the history of depression is its changing definition. Drawing on the accumulated knowledge of a lifetime devoted to the study of the individual in modern democratic society, Ehrenberg shows that the phenomenon of modern depression is not a construction of the pharmaceutical industry but a pathology arising from inadequacy in a social context where success is attributed to, and expected of, the autonomous individual. In so doing, he provides both a novel and convincing description of the illness that clarifies the intertwining relationship between its diagnostic history and changes in social norms and values. The first book to offer both a global sociological view of contemporary depression and a detailed description of psychiatric reasoning and its transformation - from the invention of electroshock therapy to mass consumption of Prozac - The Weariness of the Self offers a compelling exploration of depression as social fact.

Depression, Mental --- Social psychology. --- Depression --- History, 20th Century. --- History, 21st Century. --- Psychology, Social --- Dejection --- Depression, Unipolar --- Depressive disorder --- Depressive psychoses --- Melancholia --- Mental depression --- Unipolar depression --- Affective disorders --- Neurasthenia --- Neuroses --- Manic-depressive illness --- Melancholy --- Sadness --- 21st Cent. History (Medicine) --- 21st Cent. History of Medicine --- 21st Cent. Medicine --- Historical Events, 21st Century --- History of Medicine, 21st Cent. --- History, Twenty-first Century --- Medical History, 21st Cent. --- Medicine, 21st Cent. --- 21st Century History --- 21st Cent. Histories (Medicine) --- 21st Cent. Medicines --- 21st Century Histories --- Cent. Histories, 21st (Medicine) --- Cent. History, 21st (Medicine) --- Cent. Medicine, 21st --- Cent. Medicines, 21st --- Century Histories, 21st --- Century Histories, Twenty-first --- Century History, 21st --- Century History, Twenty-first --- Histories, 21st Cent. (Medicine) --- Histories, 21st Century --- Histories, Twenty-first Century --- History, 21st Cent. (Medicine) --- History, Twenty first Century --- Medicines, 21st Cent. --- Twenty-first Century Histories --- Twenty-first Century History --- 20th Cent. History (Medicine) --- 20th Cent. History of Medicine --- 20th Cent. Medicine --- Historical Events, 20th Century --- History of Medicine, 20th Cent. --- History, Twentieth Century --- Medical History, 20th Cent. --- Medicine, 20th Cent. --- 20th Century History --- 20th Cent. Histories (Medicine) --- 20th Century Histories --- Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine) --- Cent. History, 20th (Medicine) --- Century Histories, 20th --- Century Histories, Twentieth --- Century History, 20th --- Century History, Twentieth --- Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine) --- Histories, 20th Century --- Histories, Twentieth Century --- History, 20th Cent. (Medicine) --- Twentieth Century Histories --- Twentieth Century History --- Mass psychology --- Human ecology --- Psychology --- Social groups --- Sociology --- Social aspects. --- History. --- history. --- Social psychiatry. --- Psychiatry, Social --- Clinical sociology --- Mental health --- Psychiatry --- Social medicine --- Social psychology --- Dépression --- Psychologie sociale. --- Aspect social. --- Histoire. --- Bipolar disorder