Speaker
Description
In the societal discourse surrounding depression as a widespread disease, there are frequent reports about depressed elite athletes. Further, the scientific debate on depression in athletes is also gaining momentum. However, research on the subject has been dominated by sports psychiatrists and sports psychologists. By contrast, sociological perspectives that observe the phenomenon as a social reality are still underrepresented.
Drawing on sociological systems theory, various perspectives on the social construction of depression in elite athletes can be explored.
First, depression is seen as a form that is increasingly applied in elite sport, and which functions to observe quite different phenomena of suffering as the same mental illness. Second, depression is apparent as a communication topic that unfolds independently of the athlete’s psychic reality, and takes on different meanings in different social contexts. Third, depression is understood as a semantics that assumes social causes for the suffering. In sum, these perspectives reveal paradoxes, uncertainties, blind spots and reflection deficits in the current societal as well as scientific discourse on depression in elite athletes.
The fate of athletes who are labelled as depressed or self-attribute as such is a result of not only their mental condition but also the way in which this condition is socially observed and constructed. By analysing communication and its manifold influences on the lives of affected athletes, sociology can thus contribute significantly to the research on depression in elite athletes, and provide knowledge that is highly relevant for those disciplines dealing with the suffering in practice.
