Depression and Globalization

Depression.- What Is Depression?.- The Stigma of Depression: History and Context.- Globalization.- The New Right and the 1980s.- Globalization: Definitions and Debates.- Mental Health.- The Structures of Society and Depression.- The Mental Health Sciences and the Depression Industry.- Depression and the Future.

Dr. Carl Walker is a post-doctoral fellow based in the department of Mental Health Sciences at the University College-London. Dr. Walker currently manages a European-wide, EC-funded four year research project involving the identifcation risk factors for future episodes of depression for use in a General Practice context.

In addition, Dr. Walker reviews papers for Psychology and Health and books for the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.

From the reviews:



"This book is a personal treatise of depression and its relation to political and social events, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States since the late 1970s and early 1980s. ... This book might appeal to those interested in the history of mental illness (mainly depression) and its relation to global events, including sociopolitical changes occurring constantly throughout the world." (Steven T. Herron, Doody's Review Service, April, 2008)

"According to Walker ... the neo-liberal economic policies that emerged in the 1980s and dominate the global market today have had a profound effect on the increase of depressive disorders in the US and the UK. In this volume intended for both general and academic readers, he discusses social and mental health trends, linking factors of globalization to a variety of disorders, also confronting its effects on how psychological science understands and treats them." (www.booknews.com, April, 2008)

"One measure of a book is its effect on the reader's outlook. Although Depression and Globalization obliquely addresses clinical depression, I found while reading it that I began to listen to depressed patients differently. I felt newly attuned to the alienating effects of consumerist society on their lives, on its disruption of their family and social lives." (John C. Markowitz, MD, JAMA, November 5, 2008-Vol. 300, NO. 17)