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

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.