Depression and Globalization

This is an important academic text on the political aspects of depression, specifically the relationship between globalization and depression. It is the first book dedicated to this relationship.

This important academic text is the first book dedicated to the political aspects of depression, specifically the relationship between globalization and depression. In this text Dr. Walker reestablishes the link between mental health research and treatment, along with the political and economical influences outside the world of academic and clinical mental health. Overall, this book will accomplish the task of how closely and inextricably linked these diverse fields are and the way they operate together to produce not only a cultural representation of mental illness but influence the extent and type of mental distress in the 21st century.

Only book dedicated to the political aspects of depression, specifically the relationship between globalization and depression

Relevant text for those with preliminary knowledge of some of the more detailed and complex psychological, political and economic issues, which is explained so the reader does not feel excluded by the presentation

Is detailed and informative enough for academics and professionals who work in the mental health sphere

Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Auteur

Dr. Carl Walker is a post-doctoral fellow based in the department of Mental Health Sciences at the University College-London. Dr. Walker currently manages a European-wide, EC-funded four year research project involving the identifcation risk factors for future episodes of depression for use in a General Practice context.

In addition, Dr. Walker reviews papers for Psychology and Health and books for the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.

Texte du rabat

In the coming years the World Health Organization predicts that depression will rank just behind heart conditions in terms of the global disease burden. Yet, according to a provocative new book, mental health systems often reinforce the depressive disorders they aim to treat.

In Depression and Globalization, Carl Walker analyzes the human cost of recent political and economic events as main contributors to the rise of depression, particularly in the U.S. and Britain. Starting in the 1980s, income and educational disparities, financial and job insecurityby-products of multinational businesshave grown in parallel with increasing feelings of hopelessness and isolation. These sociopolitical stressors, Walker asserts, have not only added to the prevalence of depressive disorders, but have profoundly influenced their conceptualization and treatment. Balancing individual lives and societal health, the author identifies challenges rarely discussed in the mental health field, and steps the community can take to improve their outcome.

Included in the coverage:

• The stigma of depression in the context of recent political and economic events.

• The trickle-down mental health effects of global politics.

• The "depression industry": its economic context, and how its biological and individual emphasis can contribute to patients' core problems.

• Public attitudes toward depression, and how they are shaped.

• Community and society-wide initiatives for mental well-being,

Depression and Globalization opens the debate with considerable insight, and clinicians, researchers, and policymakers will find in Walker's work a powerful and timely prescription for change.

Contenu
Depression.- What Is Depression?.- The Stigma of Depression: History and Context.- Globalization.- The New Right and the 1980s.- Globalization: Definitions and Debates.- Mental Health.- The Structures of Society and Depression.- The Mental Health Sciences and the Depression Industry.- Depression and the Future.