eBook

Black Dogs and Blue Words

Emmons, Kimberly K

2010,2019

Overview

His \"black dog\"--that was how Winston Churchill referred to his own depression. Today, individuals with feelings of sadness and irritability are encouraged to \"talk to your doctor.\" These have become buzz words in the aggressive promotion of wonder-drug cures since 1997, when the Food and Drug Administration changed its guidelines for the marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals.Black Dogs and Blue Wordsanalyzes the rhetoric surrounding depression. Kimberly K. Emmons maintains that the techniques and language of depression marketing strategies--vague words such as \"worry,\" \"irritability,\" and \"loss of interest\"--target women and young girls and encourage self-diagnosis and self-medication. Further, depression narratives and other texts encode a series of gendered messages about health and illness.As depression and other forms of mental illness move from the medical-professional sphere into that of the consumer-public, the boundary at which distress becomes disease grows ever more encompassing, the need for remediation and treatment increasingly warranted.Black Dogs and Blue Wordsdemonstrates the need for rhetorical reading strategies as one response to these expanding and gendered illness definitions.

• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Subject: 1997 / Advertising as Topic / aggressive promotion / Anthropology / black dog / Communications Media / consumer-public / depression / Depression in women / depression marketing strategies / depression narratives / Depressive Disorder / Depressive Disorder -- psychology / distress becomes disease / Food and Drug Administration / Gender Studies / gendered illness definitions / gendered messages / guidelines / Health / Health Sciences / illness / irritability / Kimberly K. Emmons / LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Rhetoric / loss of interest / marketing / MEDICAL / MEDICAL / Psychiatry / General / medical-professional sphere / Medicine / mental illness / Mental illness in mass media / prescription pharmaceuticals / Psychiatry / psychology / remediation / rhetoric surrounding depression / rhetorical reading strategies / sadness / Self Care / self-diagnosis / self-medication / SOCIAL SCIENCE / SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies / SOCIAL SCIENCE / General / Social sciences / Sociology / treatment / Winston Churchill / Women / Women -- psychology / Women's Studies / Women's Studies, Sociology, Health, Medicine, Gender Studies, black dog, Winston Churchill, depression, sadness, irritability, aggressive promotion, wonder-drug cures, 1997, Food and Drug Administration, guidelines, marketing, prescription pharmaceuticals, rhetoric surrounding depression, Kimberly K. Emmons, depression marketing strategies, worry, loss of interest, women, young girls, self-diagnosis, self-medication, depression narratives, gendered messages, illness, mental illness, medical-professional sphere, consumer-public, distress becomes disease, remediation, treatment, rhetorical reading strategies, gendered illness definitions / wonder-drug cures / worry / young girls
• ISBN: 0813549221, 9780813549224, 0813547202, 9780813547206, 0813571421, 9780813571423