Iven Hale on Depression

In light of the recent death of Robin Williams, Iven Hale reflects on depression and suicide. Statistics indicate a global epidemic of depression, although those figures work in the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. While medication can be life changing and life saving for those suffering this genuine and physical as well as mental illness, Iven questions the risk that the Western medical model poses to alternative cultural and political traditions of suicide. Sharing stories drawn from personal and familial experience as well as from her work as a mental health professional and social worker, Iven raises questions about the obligation of mental health professionals to stop people who are suffering from killing themselves, and about whether those who end their lives are never in their right minds. She challenges the social criticism of both depression and suicide, and emphasizes sufferers' resiliency and dignity.