| Abstract: | Neurotic depression is twice as common among women. This is a puzzle to medical and social science. In this article, genetic and hormonal explanations are considered as well as the problem of distinguishing body from mind. Environmental causes are considered from the viewpoint of epidemiology, psychoanalysis and sociology. Neurotic depression is viewed as the outcome of an excess of stresses over supports and related to a woman's marital status, class and occupation.In the doctor-patient relationship, the doctor has a privileged role in interpreting what is said, an interpretation which appears as scientific to some and as individual to others. For, in order for it to be meaningful in a personal exchange, language constantly refers back to symbols which have been historically and culturally generated and, in doing so, incorporates particular historical and cultural values. By subjecting doctors and their patients to invoking a particular ideology, language binds us and blinds us in an allusive search for reality. |
