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Dictation of Happiness under Emotional Capitalism: Practices of Consuming Antidepressants in Russia

Student: Martynova Anastasia

Supervisor: Elena Berdysheva

Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences

Educational Programme: Sociology (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2020

In the last 20 years, as depression has entered people’s everyday vocabulary and become a common “complaint” in Russia, consumption of antidepressants has increased. However, previous research demonstrates that neither socio-economic nor genetic factors explain the rise in the consumption of antidepressants and the number of patients with depression. In this research the growing issue of depression will be considered on the basis of the medicalization concept and in the context of a market economy where medical services and treatment are becoming commercialized. The concept of modern capitalist commercialized society is complemented by the concept of post-industrial society, or in more specific terms, “knowledge economy” or “service economy”, when high labor productivity and improving the quality of human capital becomes priority. The aim of this study is thus to determine the conditions of modern society that enhance the demand for antidepressants. We consider people’s increased consumption of antidepressants as a specific phenomenon that develops in the context of modern capitalist society and postindustrial society. We will draw on Gerhard Schulze’s concept of experience society, Arlie Hochschild’s emotional labor, and Eva Elooaz’s emotional capitalism. The qualitative approach will be used in the research, and more specifically it will involve interviewing people who have a formal diagnosis of a mental disorder or who identify themselves as experiencing a mental disorder.

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