Faces of Depression: A Study of Antidepressant Advertisements in the American and British Journals of Psychiatry, 1960--2004 (2008)
Hanganu-Bresch, Cristina (Author)
University of Minnesota
Walzer, Arthur
Edition Details: Advisor: Walzer, Arthur
Physical Details: 336 pp.
Language: English
This dissertation studies the intersection of visual culture with mental health, focusing on one of the most controversial mental health topics of our time: antidepressants. Antidepressant advertising reflects societal conceptions of normality and abnormality, and at the same time aims to shape doctors' opinions about the proper way to diagnose and treat depression. In this study, I discuss how the images used to sell antidepressants portray the depressed vs. the "normal" population, and whether this portrayal has changed since the beginnings of psychotropic drug advertising. I selected a generous sample of antidepressant ads from two major psychiatric journals in two countries: the American and the British Journals of Psychiatry , from 1960 to 2004, a time which covers periods of profound paradigm shifts in psychiatry. First, I trace the genealogy of contemporary illustrations of depression back to an era that long precedes the invention of antidepressants, and describe the long tradition of representing the "melancholic" and how it has been remediated in ads. Second, I use a combination of content analysis and visual semiotics to provide a diachronic and cross-cultural analysis of representation of depression/ normality in the two journals. Third, I complement the content analysis with a closer comparative analysis of the advertising campaigns of two antidepressants, one old (amitryptiline) and one new (fluoxetine, or Prozac) in each journal, using mostly the tools of visual semiotics as outlined by Kress and van Leeuwen in their seminal 1996 work on the grammar of visual design. This is a mixed-methods case study in visual rhetoric, and as such useful to scholars in the field insofar as it demonstrates the possibilities as well as the limits of content analysis and semiotics. The study also offers scholars of psychopharmacology and of cultural studies a comprehensive examination of trends and themes in antidepressant advertising.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 69/05 (2008). Pub. no. AAT 3313444.
Similar Citations
Article
Horwitz, Allan V.;
(2011)
Naming the Problem That Has No Name: Creating Targets for Standardized Drugs
(/isis/citation/CBB001221532/)
Article
Pieters, Toine;
Majerus, Benoît;
(2011)
The Introduction of Chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands (1951--1968); Tango between Old and New Treatment Features
(/isis/citation/CBB001221534/)
Article
Herzberg, David;
(2011)
Blockbusters and Controlled Substances: Miltown, Quaalude, and Consumer Demand for Drugs in Postwar America
(/isis/citation/CBB001221531/)
Article
Abraham, John;
Davis, Courtney;
(2009)
Drug Evaluation and the Permissive Principle: Continuities and Contradictions between Standards and Practices in Antidepressant Regulation
(/isis/citation/CBB000953573/)
Book
Healy, David;
(2004)
Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression
(/isis/citation/CBB000630180/)
Article
Hersch, Matthew H.;
(2008)
“Calm, But Still Alert”: Marketing Stelazine to Disturbed America, 1958--1980
(/isis/citation/CBB000932029/)
Book
Nancy D. Campbell;
(2020)
OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose
(/isis/citation/CBB601007525/)
Article
Herzberg, David;
(2009)
“Will Wonder Drugs Never Cease!”: A Prehistory of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising
(/isis/citation/CBB000933443/)
Article
Podolsky, Scott H.;
Greene, Jeremy A.;
(2009)
Keeping Modern in Medicine: Pharmaceutical Promotion and Physician Education in Postwar America
(/isis/citation/CBB000932130/)
Article
Gerald, Michael C.;
(2010)
The Rise and Fall of Celebrity Promotion of Prescription Products in Direct-to-Consumer Advertising
(/isis/citation/CBB001000205/)
Multimedia Object
Zoë Bossiere;
Sarah Fawn Montgomery;
(2020)
Sarah Fawn Montgomery, “Quite Mad: An American Pharma Memoir” (Mad Creek Books, 2018)
(/isis/citation/CBB148363336/)
Book
Elliott, Carl;
Chambers, Tod;
(2004)
Prozac as a Way of Life
(/isis/citation/CBB000630048/)
Book
Lucas Richert;
(2019)
Break On Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture
(/isis/citation/CBB588038334/)
Article
McGoey, Linsey;
(2010)
Profitable Failure: Antidepressant Drugs and the Triumph of Flawed Experiments
(/isis/citation/CBB000953791/)
Book
Fisher, Jill;
(2009)
Medical Research for Hire: The Political Economy of Pharmaceutical Clinical Trials
(/isis/citation/CBB000953570/)
Article
Abraham, John;
Davis, Courtney;
(2010)
Discovery and Management of Adverse Drug Reactions: The Nomifensine Hypersensitivity Syndrome, 1977--1986
(/isis/citation/CBB000932837/)
Article
Pieters, Toine;
Snelders, Stephen;
(2011)
Standardizing Psychotropic Drugs and Drug Practices in the Twentieth Century: Paradox of Order and Disorder
(/isis/citation/CBB001221530/)
Article
Schondelmeyer, Stephen W.;
(2009)
Recent Economic Trends in American Pharmacy
(/isis/citation/CBB000933448/)
Article
Mary Schaefer Conroy;
(2019)
Tribute to Gregory Higby
(/isis/citation/CBB803024207/)
Article
Klöppel, Ulrike;
Balz, Viola;
(2010)
Psychopharmaka im Sozialismus. Arzneimittelregulierung in der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik in den 1960er Jahren
(/isis/citation/CBB001022054/)
Be the first to comment!