IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v66y2008i1p170-181.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discourses of agency and the search for the authentic self: The case of mood-modifying medicines

Author

Listed:
  • Stevenson, Fiona
  • Knudsen, Pia

Abstract

It is well established in the literature that people are active decision makers in relation to help seeking and medicine taking. This paper uses data from two qualitative studies that focused on mood-modifying medicines to illustrate how active engagement, demonstrated through help seeking and decisions about treatment, was perceived to be a crucial part of recovery. Data were generated from semi-structured interviews with 23 men and women in the UK and 12 women in Denmark. We argue that being active in decisions relating to help seeking and medicine taking for problems with mood is perceived as central in order to (re)find an 'authentic' sense of self. There is, however, an inherent contradiction in the fact that the majority of the respondents believed medicine taking to be necessary, yet the act of taking a mood-modifying medicine was in most cases perceived as a potential threat to agency and ultimately the achievement of an authentic self.

Suggested Citation

  • Stevenson, Fiona & Knudsen, Pia, 2008. "Discourses of agency and the search for the authentic self: The case of mood-modifying medicines," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 170-181, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:66:y:2008:i:1:p:170-181
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00394-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Conrad, Peter, 1985. "The meaning of medications: Another look at compliance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 29-37, January.
    2. Blaxter, Mildred, 1983. "The causes of disease : Women talking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 59-69, January.
    3. Britten, Nicky & Stevenson, Fiona & Gafaranga, Joseph & Barry, Christine & Bradley, Colin, 2004. "The expression of aversion to medicines in general practice consultations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 59(7), pages 1495-1503, October.
    4. Pill, Roisin & Stott, Nigel C. H., 1982. "Concepts of illness causation and responsibility: Some preliminary data from a sample of working class mothers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 16(1), pages 43-52, January.
    5. Donovan, Jenny L. & Blake, David R., 1992. "Patient non-compliance: Deviance or reasoned decision-making?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 507-513, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carla F. Rodrigues, 2020. "Self-medication with antibiotics in Maputo, Mozambique: practices, rationales and relationships," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Berry, Brandon & Apesoa-Varano, Ester Carolina, 2017. "Medication takeovers: Covert druggings and behavioral control in Alzheimer's," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 51-59.
    3. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    4. Doran, Evan & Robertson, Jane & Henry, David, 2005. "Moral hazard and prescription medicine use in Australia--the patient perspective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 1437-1443, April.
    5. Zhou, Amy, 2016. "The uncertainty of treatment: Women's use of HIV treatment as prevention in Malawi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 52-60.
    6. Robinson, Jude & Kirkcaldy, Andrew J., 2007. "'You think that I'm smoking and they're not': Why mothers still smoke in the home," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 641-652, August.
    7. Pound, Pandora & Britten, Nicky & Morgan, Myfanwy & Yardley, Lucy & Pope, Catherine & Daker-White, Gavin & Campbell, Rona, 2005. "Resisting medicines: a synthesis of qualitative studies of medicine taking," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 133-155, July.
    8. Emslie, Carol & Hunt, Kate, 2008. "The weaker sex? Exploring lay understandings of gender differences in life expectancy: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 808-816, September.
    9. Lawton, Julia & Peel, Elizabeth & Parry, Odette & Araoz, Gonzalo & Douglas, Margaret, 2005. "Lay perceptions of type 2 diabetes in Scotland: bringing health services back in," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(7), pages 1423-1435, April.
    10. Céline Mercier, 1994. "Improving the quality of life of people with severe mental disorders," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 165-192, August.
    11. Garthwaite, Kayleigh & Bambra, Clare, 2017. "“How the other half live”: Lay perspectives on health inequalities in an age of austerity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 268-275.
    12. Viet-Thi Tran & Mariam Mama Djima & Eugene Messou & Jocelyne Moisan & Jean-Pierre Grégoire & Didier K Ekouevi, 2018. "Avoidable workload of care for patients living with HIV infection in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: A cross-sectional study," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, August.
    13. Ben Butlin & Keith Laws & Rebecca Read & Matthew D Broome & Shivani Sharma, 2019. "Concepts of mental disorders in the United Kingdom: Similarities and differences between the lay public and psychiatrists," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 65(6), pages 507-514, September.
    14. Tocco, Jack Ume, 2017. "The Islamification of antiretroviral therapy: Reconciling HIV treatment and religion in northern Nigeria," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 190(C), pages 75-82.
    15. Natália Helena de Resende & Ursula Carolina de Morais Martins & Djenane Ramalho-de-Oliveira & Dirce Inês da Silva & Silvana Spíndola de Miranda & Adriano Max Moreira Reis & Wânia da Silva Carvalho & S, 2022. "The Medication Experience of TB/HIV Coinfected Patients: Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-11, November.
    16. Wrubel, Judith & Tedlie Moskowitz, Judith & Anne Richards, T. & Prakke, Heleen & Acree, Michael & Folkman, Susan, 2005. "Pediatric adherence: Perspectives of mothers of children with HIV," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(11), pages 2423-2433, December.
    17. A?ina GÜLERARSLAN & M. Bar?? YILMAZ & Yasemin YILMAZ, 2015. "The Role Of Opinion Leaders Within The Context Of Purchasing Herbal Products For Health," Proceedings of Business and Management Conferences 3005327, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    18. Lien, Hsien-Ming & Lu, Mingshan & Albert Ma, Ching-To & McGuire, Thomas G., 2010. "Progress and compliance in alcohol abuse treatment," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 213-225, March.
    19. Ajit K. Dalal, 2000. "Living with a Chronic Disease: Healing and Psychological Adjustment in Indian Society," Psychology and Developing Societies, , vol. 12(1), pages 67-81, March.
    20. Kinderman, Peter & Setzu, Erika & Lobban, Fiona & Salmon, Peter, 2006. "Illness beliefs in schizophrenia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(7), pages 1900-1911, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:66:y:2008:i:1:p:170-181. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.