Depression and the Patriarchal Dichotomies of Modern Thought

Depressive disorders is a concept structured by ontological presuppositions that constitute boundaries between individual-social, internal-external, essential-influential, body-mind. Notwithstanding that these ontological dichotomies are rooted in the biomedical conceptualisation of depression, they are neither peculiar to this conceptualisation nor unrelated to each other and to the political, socio-cultural, economic background. Depending on the feminist critique, it can be argued that these ontological presumptions are different aspects of an extensive ontological ground established to enable modern forms of patriarchal domination. This article aims to analyse the ontological ground underlying the biomedical model of depression from a feminist perspective. To achieve this, (1) the biomedical model of depression offered by APA will be introduced, (2) the ontological ground underlying this conception will be revieled, (3) feminist examination of some conceptual dichotomies will be outlined and (4) the ontological ground underlying depression will be examined based on its relation to modern patriarchal dichotomies.