Elizabeth A. Wilson shakes feminist theory from its resistance to biological and pharmaceutical data and urges that now is the time for feminism to critically engage with biology. Doing so will reanimate feminist theory, strengthening its ability to address depression, affect, gender, and feminist politics.

Acknowledgments  vii

Introduction: Depression, Biology, Aggression  1

Part I. Feminist Theory

1. Underbelly  21

2. The Biolocial Unconscious  45

3. Bitter Melancholy  68

Part II. Antidepressants

4. Chemical Transference  97

5. The Bastard Placebo  121

6. The Pharmakology of Depression  141

Conclusion  169

Notes  181

References  201

Index  225

Elizabeth A. Wilson is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Emory University and the author of Psychosomatic: Feminism and the Neurological Body, also published by Duke University Press.