Psychoanalytic notes on the status of depression in curriculum affected by histories of loss

Abstract

This paper examines debates about the meaning and value of depression in relationship to efforts to teach about, and learn from, historical loss. It is argued that depression is not solely an individual illness or biological aberration, but a trace and effect of facing the many and profound losses – of culture, language and life – that constitute history. And yet, where there is a tendency to privilege the negative affect of depression as a source of critical insight and remembrance, this paper turns to Andre Green’s (1980) concept of ‘the dead mother’ to examine the inhibiting effects of depression in the context of the inter-generational relationship between parent and child, and arguably, the teacher and student as well. Using a case study from education, I suggest that depression, while indeed a painful trace of loss, can hinder the capacity to represent and so encounter the sadness, vulnerability and lost omnipotence that history leaves in its wake. I conclude with some thoughts on the conditions needed to narrate the meaning and effects of loss that negative affect alone embodies but cannot yet speak.

Keywords:

• psychoanalysis
• depression
• curriculum
• history
• ‘dead mother’