Speaking of sadness : depression, disconnection, and the meanings of illness / David A. Karp.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-396) and index.

"Combining a scholar's care and thoroughness with searing personal insight, David A. Karp brings the private experience of depression into sharp relief, drawing on a remarkable series of intimate interviews with fifty depressed men and women. By turns poignant, disturbing, mordantly funny, and wise, Karp's interviews cause us to marvel at the courage of depressed people in dealing with extraordinary and debilitating pain. We hear what depression feels like, what it means to receive an 'official' clinical diagnosis, and what depressed persons think of the battalion of mental health experts-- doctors, nurses, social workers, sociologists, psychologists, and therapists-- employed to help them. Ranging in age from their early twenties to their mid-sixties, the people Karp profiles reflect on their working lives, career aspirations, and intimate relationships, and confide strategies for overcoming paralyzing episodes of hopelessness. Throughout, Karp probes the myriad ways society contributes to widespread alienation and emotional exhaustion. In a new and extensive introduction since the original publication of Speaking of Sadness twenty years ago, Karp evaluates the state of and social movements for the depression experience. He traces his personal depression journey along with the reception of his readers since the book's original publication. In addition, he offers a clear perspective on the consequences of wholesale 'medicalization' permeating cultural treatment of depression, and calls towards a movement to listen to and to voice the experiences of the marginalized.