Becoming individuals or the endless discovery: the reconstruction of feminine subjectivities through depression narratives in Turkey

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the tension between femininity and the psychology discourse in Turkey through women's narratives about the depression. This thesis aims to show that the norm of the individual self employed by the psychology discourse opens a gap between women and the norm of psychologically healthy self. The practices of psychology operate with the premise of closing this gap and of alleviating the women's psychological burden which is caused by the pathriarchal norms. However, this thesis claims that the psychology discourse creates new burdens and conflicts for women with its basic tenet: the individual self. This thesis aims to show these, by analysing how women relate to this norm and the psychology discourse. How they retell their live stories around the norms and definitions of psychology is the main question of this thesis. I argue that the discourse of psychology opens up a new space for women to talk about the unspeakable parts of their lives and through this new space it regulates femininity and/but reconstructs the existing gender norms.