Introduction: Depression, Biology, Aggression
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Published:August 2015
The introduction outlines the two key strands of argument in the book: first, the claim that biological data about depression can be used in feminist theories about minded and bodily states; second, the claim that hostility is intrinsic to feminist politics. It previews the kinds of conceptual innovations that would be possible if feminist theory weren’t so instinctively antibiological; and it indicates how feminist theory and politics might change if more consideration were given to feminism’s own hostilities and aggressions. The introduction also gives a general outline of the contemporary political scene in relation to antidepressants; special attention is paid to antipsychiatry. The introduction closes with an analysis of abdominal migraine in children, which is used to demonstrate how the book approaches questions of mind, melancholia, bile, and the gut.