Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression And Gender In The Social World

by Dana C. Jack

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Author: Dana C. Jack

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 0199932026
ISBN 13: 978-0199932023

Hardcover:
ISBN 10: 0195398092
ISBN 13: 978-0195398090

Winner of the 2011 Ursula Gielen Global Psychology Book Award!

This award is presented by APA Division 52 to the authors or editors of a book that makes the greatest contribution to psychology as an international discipline and profession.

This international volume offers new perspectives on social and psychological aspects of depression. The twenty-one contributors hailing from thirteen countries represent contexts with very different histories, political and economic structures, and gender role disparities. Authors rely on Silencing the Self theory, which details the negative psychological effects that result when individuals silence themselves in close relationships, and the importance of social context in precipitating depression. Specific patterns of thought on how to achieve closeness in relationships (self-silencing schema) are known to predict depression. This book breaks new ground by demonstrating that the link between depressive symptoms and self-silencing occurs across a range of cultures.

Silencing the Self Across Cultures explains why women's depression is more widespread than men's, and why the treatment of depression lies in understanding that a person's individual psychology is inextricably related to the social world and close relationships. Several chapters describe the transformative possibilities of community-driven movements for disadvantaged women that support healing through a recovery of voice, as well as the need to counter violations of human rights as a means of reducing women's risk of depression. Bringing the work of these researchers together in one collection furthers international dialogue about critical social factors that affect the rising rates of depression around the globe.

Review

"I could not put down this highly interesting volume of essays that provides some of the most powerful and stunning insights into a reframing of women's depression! I strongly recommend this impressive book for all providers of health services as well as for educators and policy makers."
--Melba J. T. Vasquez, President, American Psychological Association

"This volume is perhaps the most powerful and poignant account of the silencing of women's voices across time and culture that has been published. It is a book that informs. It is a book that enlightens. It is a book to be treasured, and to be remembered long after it has been read and placed on the shelf."
--Anthony J. Marsella, Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Hawaii

"The authors in this volume listen to women with a methodological tuning fork, precise and sensitive to women and context, and they read women's depression like a smoke alarm on cultural abuses of power. In the caring and delicate hands of Jack and Ali, women's narrations of depression signal a global call for justice and gendered human rights."
--Michelle Fine, Distinguished Professor of Social Psychology, Women's Studies, and Urban Education, Graduate Center, City University of New York

"This book demonstrates the importance of self-silencing in the lives of women (and men) in many societies. The relationship to depression is useful for clinicians and researchers, and shows a means of getting at clinically relevant cultural information in a disciplined and practical way."
--Arthur Kleinman, MD, Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology, Harvard University, and Professor of Medical Anthropology and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"A vivid and scholarly portrayal of how gender and cultural influence interact to shape the expression of mood disorder."
--Zindel V. Segal, Cameron Wilson Chair in Depression Studies and Professor of Psychiatry, University of Toronto

"What a stunning achievement! In the face of a medical establishment that views and treats depression as primarily a problem of faulty neurochemistry, this compelling book argues persuasively (and with solid evidence) for the powerful role of oppression in shaping women's mental health. This volume is required reading for mental health providers, scholars, and activists interested in understanding and improving women's lives."
--Lisa A. Goodman, Professor, Department of Counseling and Developmental Psychology, Boston College

About the Author

Dana C. Jack is Professor at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Western Washington University. Her research examines women's depression and anger in the US and internationally, and qualitative research methods. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Nepal in 2001, and is the author of three books, including Silencing the Self: Women and Depression.

Alisha Ali is Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University. Her research examines social influences on women's depression, including the effects of emotional abuse, racism, and harassment. She is currently the principal investigator on a series of studies examining economic empowerment for survivors of domestic violence.

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Silencing the Self Across Cultures: Depression And Gender In The Social World