Dispossession, oppression and depression

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Supplementing the medical model of depression, many researchers have begun to conceptualize ways in which the historical legacies of racism and colonialism create depressive conditions. Given the lived experiences of marginalized peoples, ranging from conditions of migration, class stratification, cultural genocide, labor exploitation, and social immobility, depression can be seen as a "rational response to global conditions", according to Ann Cvetkovich. [1]

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Psychogeographical depression overlaps somewhat with the theory of "deprejudice", a portmanteau of depression and prejudice proposed by Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon in 2012, [2] who argue for an integrative approach to studying the often comorbid experiences. Cox, Abramson, Devine, and Hollon are concerned with the ways in which social stereotypes are often internalized, creating negative self-stereotypes that then produce depressive symptoms.

Unlike the theory of "deprejudice", a psychogeographical theory of depression attempts to broaden study of the subject beyond an individual experience to one produced on a societal scale, seeing particular manifestations of depression as rooted in dispossession; historical legacies of genocide, slavery, and colonialism are productive of segregation, both material and psychic material deprivation, [3] and concomitant circumstances of violence, systemic exclusion, and lack of access to legal protections. The demands of navigating these circumstances compromise the resources available to a population to seek comfort, health, stability, and sense of security. The historical memory of this trauma conditions the psychological health of future generations, making psychogeographical depression an intergenerational experience as well.

This work is supported by recent studies in genetic science which has demonstrated an epigenetic link between the trauma suffered by Holocaust survivors and the genetic reverberations for subsequent generations. [4] [ non-primary source needed ] Likewise, research by scientists at Emory University suggests that memories of trauma can be inherited, rendering offspring vulnerable to psychological predispositions for stress disorders, schizophrenia, and PTSD. [5]

Vacant lot greening and mood

A 2018 study asked low income residents of Philadelphia "how often they felt nervous, hopeless, restless, depressed and worthless." [6] As an experimental mental health intervention, trash was removed from vacant lots. Some of the vacant lots were "greened", with plantings of trees, grass, and small fences. Residents near the "greened" lots who had incomes below the poverty line reported a decrease in feelings of depression of 68%, while residents with incomes above the poverty line reported a decrease of 41%. Removing trash from vacant lots without installing landscaping did not have an observable mental health impact. [6]

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Ann Luja Cvetkovich is a Professor and the Director of the Pauline Jewett Institute of Women's and Gender Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa. Until 2019, she was the Ellen Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor of English and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she had been the founding director of the LGBTQ Studies Program, launched in 2017. She has published three books: Mixed Feelings: Feminism, Mass Culture, and Victorian Sensationalism (1992); An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (2003); and Depression: A Public Feeling (2012). She has also co-edited Articulating the Global and Local: Globalization and Cultural Studies (1996) with Douglas Kellner, as well as Political Emotions: New Agendas in Communication (2010) with Janet Staiger and Ann Reynolds. Furthermore, Cvetkovich has co-edited a special issue of Scholar and Feminist Online, entitled "Public Sentiments" with Ann Pellegrini. She is also a former co-editor of GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies with Annamarie Jagose.

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References

  1. Cvetkovich, Ann (2012). Depression: A Public Feeling. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 25. ISBN   0822352389. OCLC   779876753. …the histories of genocide, slavery, and exclusion and oppression of immigrants that seep into our daily lives of segregation, often as invisible forces that structure comfort and privilege for some and lack of resources for others, inequities whose connection to the past frequently remain obscure. These are depressing conditions, indeed, ones that make depression seem not so much a medical or biochemical dysfunction as a very rational response to global conditions.
  2. Cox, William T.L.; Abramson, Lyn Y.; Devine, Patricia G.; Hollon, Steven D. (September 2012). "Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Depression: The Integrated Perspective". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 7 (5): 427–49. doi:10.1177/1745691612455204. PMID   26168502. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  3. Ta-Nehisi Coates (June 2014). "The Case for Reparations". The Atlantic.
  4. Yehuda, Rachel; Daskalakis, Nikolaos P.; Bierer, Linda M.; Bader, Heather N.; Klengel, Torsten; Holsboer, Florian; Binder, Elisabeth B. (August 12, 2015). "Holocaust Exposure Induced Intergenerational Effects on FKBP5 Methylation". Biological Psychiatry. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2015.08.005 . PMID   26410355. Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  5. Callaway, Ewen (December 1, 2013). "Fearful Memories Haunt Mouse Descendants". Nature. doi:10.1038/nature.2013.14272.
  6. 1 2 Hui, Mary (August 17, 2018). "Study: When a city's trashy lots are cleaned up, residents' mental health improves". The Washington Post . Retrieved June 3, 2021.