When the Black Dog Barks: An Autoethnography of Adult Learning in and on Clinical Depression

Autor/in	Brookfield, Stephen
Titel	When the Black Dog Barks: An Autoethnography of Adult Learning in and on Clinical Depression
Quelle	In: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, (2011) 132, S.35-42 (8 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1052-2891
DOI	10.1002/ace.429
Schlagwörter	Adult Education; Adult Learning; Adult Educators; Depression (Psychology); Autobiographies; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Coping; Ideology; Mental Health + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Adult; Adults; Education; Adult basic education; Adult training; Erwachsenenbildung; Adulte education; Adult education teacher; Adult education; Teacher; Teachers; Adult educator; Erwachsenenbildner; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; Autobiography; Autobiografie; Autobiographie; Psychiatrische Symptomatik; Bewältigung; Ideologie; Psychohygiene
Abstract	The U.S. government's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) estimates that in any given year, 14.8 million American adults (about 6.7 percent of the adult population) suffer from clinical depression or major depressive disorder, as it is sometimes called (NIMH, n.d.). In Canada, a recent study projected the estimate of sufferers much higher than had previously been imagined, calculating that 19.7 percent of adults suffer from clinical depression sometime during their lifetime (Boughton, 2009). The NIMH also classifies clinical depression as the leading form of disability for Americans ages 15 to 44. Depression is not feeling sad at the loss of a loved one; it is not being devastated by a marriage breakup or feeling a loss of identity after being fired. Neither is it feeling trapped by winter in northern climes with the resultant lack of natural light or sun. All these things are traumatic and distressing, but all are traceable to a specific root cause. In this article, the author defines depression as the persistent feeling of complete worthlessness and hopelessness, often accompanied by the overwhelming anxiety that this hour, this day, or this week will be one's last on earth. This kind of depression has no clearly identifiable social cause, such as death, divorce, or economic crisis; instead, it settles on a person uninvited, and often completely unexpected, and permeates the soul, flesh, and bone. The author uses his own experience of learning to understand and cope with depression as the starting point for an analysis of what might comprise a research agenda for anyone interested in exploring the adult learning dimensions of depression. The numbers quoted at the start of this article indicate that learning how to live with, and treat, depression must be considered a massive societal adult learning task. Such a task comprises two dimensions: requiring (1) adults to learn how to recognize, monitor, and cope with such depression; and (2) adult educators to provide education about this condition. The author explores the first of these dimensions: how adults learn to deal with the onset of depression. In doing so, he marries some prevailing paradigms in adult education to an autoethnography of clinical depression. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10