'About a year before the breakdown I was having symptoms': sadness, pathology and the Australian newspaper media

R. Rowe; F. Tilbury; M. Rapley; I. O'Ferrall

doi:10.1111/1467-9566.00365

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'About a year before the breakdown I was having symptoms': sadness, pathology and the Australian newspaper media

Journal article

Peer reviewed

'About a year before the breakdown I was having symptoms': sadness, pathology and the Australian newspaper media

R. Rowe, F. Tilbury, M. Rapley and I. O'Ferrall

Sociology of Health and Illness, Vol.25(6), pp.680-696

2003

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.00365

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Abstract

Portrayals of mental illness in the media reportedly highlight violence and crime by the 'mentally ill'. Using a discourse analytic approach we investigated representations of 'depression' in the print media in Australia during the year 2000. Unlike other 'mental illnesses', in the case of depression the media stress the need for the protection of the sufferer, rather than others. Three key discourses are identified - the biomedical, the psycho-social and the administrative/managerial - which work to normalise depression by presenting it as beyond the control of the afflicted individual: a consequence of faulty brain chemistry or the product of social conditions. These discourses work together to produce unhappiness as individualised pathology in need of management through biological, psychological or social structural controls.

Details

Title: 'About a year before the breakdown I was having symptoms': sadness, pathology and the Australian newspaper media
Authors/Creators: R. Rowe (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
F. Tilbury (Author/Creator) - School of Social Inquiry Murdoch University
M. Rapley (Author/Creator) - Murdoch University
I. O'Ferrall (Author/Creator) - East Metropolitan Populations Health Unit, Perth, WA
Publication Details: Sociology of Health and Illness, Vol.25(6), pp.680-696
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc.
Identifiers: 991005545538307891
Murdoch Affiliation: School of Psychology; School of Social Inquiry
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Citation topics: 1 Clinical & Life Sciences; 1.21 Psychiatry; 1.21.1363 Mental Health Stigma
Web Of Science research areas: Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; Social Sciences, Biomedical; Sociology
ESI research areas: Social Sciences, general