Depression: Out-of-Tune Embodiment, Loss of Bodily Resonance, and Body Work

ABSTRACT

Based on fieldwork among adults suffering from depression in Denmark, I explore depression as an out-of-tune embodiment, characterized by disturbances of bodily experiences and loss of bodily resonance. I depict my informants’ efforts to attune to the rhythm of the everyday through different kinds of body work. This perspective calls for an acknowledgement of the resonant body, and provides a non-reductionist portrayal of depression that differs from the dominant understanding of depression as an individual (brain) disorder. These findings suggest a paradigm shift, in which depression slowly is beginning to be acknowledged as a bodily, relational, and social phenomenon.

KEYWORDS:

• Denmark
• body work
• depression
• out-of-tune embodiment
• resonance
• suffering

Acknowledgments

First of all, I would like to thank the people suffering from depression, who generously shared their stories with me. I also want to thank the reviewers for their thought-provoking questions and constructive suggestions. Finally, I want to thank the Diagnostic Culture group at Aalborg University, Anders Petersen, Svend Brinkmann, Mikka Nielsen, Ester Holte Kofod, and Rasmus Birk for valuable comments on earlier drafts.

Additional information

Funding

My research was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research under Grant [number 12-125597].

Notes on contributors

Mette Toft Rønberg

Mette Toft Rønberg is a research assistant at Aalborg University, Denmark. This article is part of her thesis Experiences of Depression: Diagnosis, Resistance and Out-of-tune Embodiment (2017).