Going loca: Depression at work as a public feeling in Peru

Abstract

In this article, we invite the reader to join us in developing a culturally situated understanding of mental health at work in the Global South. Basing our analysis within the context of Peru, we situate depression as a feminist-inspired “Public Feelings project,” whereby embodied experiences such as depression are inseparable from historical, social, and political structures of oppression (Cvetkovich, 2007). Through methodologically engaging in a mode of Nguyen et al.’s (2016) epistemic friendship, we explore the experiences of 12 Peruvian working women who self-identify as having depression. Using interviews and arts-based methods; specifically, Peruvian-inspired portraiture, as a potential well for hope, healing, and humanity, we consider the narratives, experiences, feelings, and other embodied forms of knowing around depression and work in Peru. Working with the in vivo concept of “being loco,” we develop two art-works presenting in dialogue with findings that explore the potential of how a Public Feelings lens might open up theoretical and methodological vistas for exploring in situ health experiences as constituted in particular geohistorical and gendered landscapes.