Akademie Greifswald
128
Arbeitsgruppe 1
Depression: life, science, or business interest?
Leitung
Prof. Dr. Klaus Ebmeier
Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford
Prof. Dr. Stefan Ecks
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh
Teilnehmer
Studierende aller Fächer
The definition of depression is contested between humanities, social sciences, medicine
and natural sciences. Moral panics and heated exchanges in the media occur on a regular
basis about the need for and efficacy of treatments or remedies, ranging from the claim
that industrial interests push drugs that lead to addiction and suicide, to the complaint
that depression is vastly undertreated in the community. The seminar organisers span the
conceptual rift, but more importantly are wedded, in a sober Anglo-Saxon fashion, to an
empirical approach to such questions.
Methods employed range from participant observation (social anthropology) to neuro-
imaging, from clinical science to epidemiology.
