Comments on: Dear Ethan Watters: Depression Is Not “Normal” http://www.addaptabilities.com/2010/02/02/dear-ethan-watters-depression-is-not-normal/ Life with Adult Learning Disabilities Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:24:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Addy http://www.addaptabilities.com/2010/02/02/dear-ethan-watters-depression-is-not-normal/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Addy Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:06:01 +0000 http://www.addaptabilities.com/?p=405#comment-138 Wow, those google alerts are really something :) I do understand that TDS is not an ideal forum for getting nuanced ideas across, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. As I said in my post, I understand that mental illness cannot be divorced from cultural context. I agree that the biomedical model has serious shortcomings, not just in other cultures but in ours as well. I responded the way I did because many people still dismiss clinical depression as a made-up, self-indulgent illness; or they dismiss necessary medication as "pill-popping" that erases the need to "deal with the real problems". When a book author uses casual shorthand (however forgivable) that seems to corroborate this stereotype, this pernicious myth is perpetuated, and I will address it in this forum. Again, thank you for taking the time to clarify your remarks here. I will definitely take a look at the book when I get the chance. Wow, those google alerts are really something happy

I do understand that TDS is not an ideal forum for getting nuanced ideas across, and I appreciate you taking the time to comment. As I said in my post, I understand that mental illness cannot be divorced from cultural context. I agree that the biomedical model has serious shortcomings, not just in other cultures but in ours as well.

I responded the way I did because many people still dismiss clinical depression as a made-up, self-indulgent illness; or they dismiss necessary medication as “pill-popping” that erases the need to “deal with the real problems”. When a book author uses casual shorthand (however forgivable) that seems to corroborate this stereotype, this pernicious myth is perpetuated, and I will address it in this forum.

Again, thank you for taking the time to clarify your remarks here. I will definitely take a look at the book when I get the chance.

]]> By: Ethan Watters http://www.addaptabilities.com/2010/02/02/dear-ethan-watters-depression-is-not-normal/comment-page-1/#comment-137 Ethan Watters Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:36:48 +0000 http://www.addaptabilities.com/?p=405#comment-137 I hope you'll forgive the shorthand way I was trying to get my ideas across on the Daily Show -- not a forum for subtlety. My point is not that depression is normal but that different cultures draw different lines between the normal and the pathological and those lines matter when it comes to experience in question. If you give the book a look, I hope you'll find a more respectful and thorough presentations of these ideas than what I managed on the Daily Show. I hope you’ll forgive the shorthand way I was trying to get my ideas across on the Daily Show — not a forum for subtlety. My point is not that depression is normal but that different cultures draw different lines between the normal and the pathological and those lines matter when it comes to experience in question. If you give the book a look, I hope you’ll find a more respectful and thorough presentations of these ideas than what I managed on the Daily Show.

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