Old Black Cloud

A cultural history of mental depression in Aotearoa New Zealand

Jacqueline Leckie

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English

Massey University Press
13 June 2024

Care of the mentally ill; History of medicine

Mental depression is a serious issue in contemporary New Zealand, and it has an increasingly high profile. But during our history, depression has often been hidden under a long black cloud of denial that we have not always lived up to the Kiwi ideal of being pragmatic and have not always coped. Using historic patient records as a starting place, and informed by her own experience of depression, academic Jacqueline Leckie's timely social history of depression in Aotearoa analyses its medical, cultural and social contexts through an historical lens. From detailing its links to melancholia and explaining its expression within Indigenous and migrant communities, this engrossing book interrogates how depression was medicalised and has been treated, and how New Zealanders have lived with it.

By: Jacqueline Leckie
Imprint: Massey University Press
Country of Publication: New Zealand
Dimensions: Height: 230mm, Width: 163mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781991016720
ISBN 10: 1991016727
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 13 June 2024
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Unspecified

Introduction 7 1. Discourse and diagnosis 19 2. Rāwakiwaki 49 3. The lonely land 76 4. Enduring darkness 109 5. Living with, and denying, the dark cloud 135 6. Depression, ethnicity and culture 160 7. ‘Quacks’, shocks, docs and drugs 186 Epilogue 224 Notes 238 Bibliography 277 Psychiatric hospitals in Aotearoa New Zealand 299 Glossary 300 Image credits 303 Acknowledgements 304 About the author 305 Index 306

Jacqueline Leckie is a researcher and writer based in Ōtepoti Dunedin. She was a former J. D. Stout research fellow and is now an adjunct research fellow with the Stout Centre for New Zealand Studies at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka, and conjoint associate professor in the School of Creative Industries and Social Science at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She is a fellow of the New Zealand Indian Research Institute, an affiliated researcher of Centre for Global Migrations (Otago), and co-editor of the Journal of Pacific History. She has taught at the University of the South Pacific, Kenyatta University and the University of Otago. Her publications have covered health history, the Indian diaspora, gender, ethnicity, and work within the Asia–Pacific. Her books include Invisible: New Zealand’s History of Excluding Kiwi-Indians (2021), Colonizing Madness: Asylum and Community in Fiji (2020), Indian Settlers: The Story of a New Zealand South Asian Community (2007), To Labour with the State (1997), and A University for the Pacific: 50 Years of USP (2018).

Reviews for Old Black Cloud: A cultural history of mental depression in Aotearoa New Zealand

‘Old Black Cloud is authoritative, erudite and highly readable. It should be mandatory reading for all those interested in the social and cultural dimensions of depression and mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand.’ — Solomon Lewis, North & South ‘Highly accessible, uniquely insightful, and in-depth exploration of mental depression as an intrinsic part of our national fabric.’ — Allan McEvoy, Kete Books ‘Jacqueline Leckie marks an important (and poignant) milestone in tackling a subject which deserves more transparency.’ — Jenny Nicolls, Waiheke Weekender