Gender Politics in the Discourse of Depressive Disorders:A Content Analysis of Recent Articles in Taiwan’s Newspaper

• Main Authors: Hui-Wen Teng, 鄧惠文
• Other Authors: CHUNG-TUNG LIU
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2004
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84790992883970018843

碩士 === 臺北醫學大學 === 醫學研究所 === 92 === Specific Aims: Prevention and management of depression have become serious issues in today’s health policy. Because women constitute a large portion of depressive patients, the wide-spreading discourses of depressive disorders often target at women. Through the medicalization of women’s suffering, medical professions obtain the power to interpret and manage women’s problems. This thesis is aimed to examine gender bias and politics in the discourses of depressive disorders. Methods: The samples were drawn from the databank of United Daily News in Taiwan. In the first part of this thesis, we carried out a quantitative content analysis of articles about depressive disorders, examined gender differences in case illustrations, symptoms descriptions and disease attributions. In the second and major part, we use qualitative methods to analyze and interpret gender implications in the discourses of depressive disorders. Results: The opinions about depressive disorders in newspaper articles mainly come from medical professions. But instead of empirical knowledge, they are contaminated by personal and social prejudices of sexism. The articles over-present women in case illustrations, describe more symptoms for women and excessively label women as depressive patients. Most explanations of depressive disorders are based of patriarchal view and tend to blame women. The biological explanations of depression give undue emphasis to women’s physical diathesis and neglect women’s difficult social situations. The so-called “psycho-social” explanations of depression are limited to gender stereotype, or even worse, act to discipline women’s behavior. The discourses of premenstrual, postpartum and menopausal depression pathologize women’s lifetime and reveal the “double-bound” social expectations of women’s role.