"Titled things": Materiality and reification in antidepressant narratives

Marie Allitt

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-80554-8_7

"Titled things": Materiality and reification in antidepressant narratives

Marie Allitt

School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review

Abstract

The invisibility of depression makes it difficult to diagnose, quantify, and treat. Metaphors and images of materiality attempt to communicate it, in turn making the invisible, visible. Focusing on the life writing of Lauren Slater and Elizabeth Wurtzel, this chapter focuses on the material experiences of consuming antidepressants. Ingestion of the psychotropics offer a return to the corporeal body. Going beyond the cataloguing of side effects, to the materiality of the drugs themselves, we can consider the imperceptible relationship between self and other. Alongside the emergence of a biomedical discourse, we can explore the moment of ingestion, and the relationship between the body and the pharmaceutical matter, as well as question to what extent this ritual of medication reifies the illness.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Re/Imagining Depression
Subtitle of host publication	Creative Approaches to “Feeling Bad”
Editors	Julie Hollenbach, Robin Alex McDonald
Publisher	Springer
Pages	87–102
ISBN (Electronic)	9783030805548
ISBN (Print)	9783030805531
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80554-8_7
Publication status	Published - 22 Sept 2021

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abstract = "The invisibility of depression makes it difficult to diagnose, quantify, and treat. Metaphors and images of materiality attempt to communicate it, in turn making the invisible, visible. Focusing on the life writing of Lauren Slater and Elizabeth Wurtzel, this chapter focuses on the material experiences of consuming antidepressants. Ingestion of the psychotropics offer a return to the corporeal body. Going beyond the cataloguing of side effects, to the materiality of the drugs themselves, we can consider the imperceptible relationship between self and other. Alongside the emergence of a biomedical discourse, we can explore the moment of ingestion, and the relationship between the body and the pharmaceutical matter, as well as question to what extent this ritual of medication reifies the illness.",

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"Titled things": Materiality and reification in antidepressant narratives

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