Bitter Melancholy: Feminism, Depression, and Aggression

Elizabeth A. Wilson, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University, presents her book “Gut Feminism” that continues her scholarly enterprise with a feminist analysis of biomedical theories of depression. Looking at medical data about how antidepressants traverse the body, Wilson notes that the effects of such drugs for controlling depression are not limited to the brain but also impact the network of nerves involved in the gut: “Antidepressants don’t just go straight to the brain and nowhere else.” In this project, she has been looking at both the pharmacology of SSRIs and the neurobiology of the viscera.