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Standing In the Shadows
John Head
A first-of-its-kind exploration of black men and depression from an award-winning journalist
Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men
Broadway
August 2004
224 pages ISBN: 0767913531 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The first book to reveal the depths of black men’s buried
mental and emotional pain, Standing in the Shadows weaves
the author’s story of his twenty-five-year struggle with
depression with a cultural analysis of how the illness is
perceived in the black community—and why nobody wants to
talk about it.In mainstream society depression and mental
illness are still somewhat taboo subjects; in the black
community they are topics that are almost completely
shrouded in secrecy. As a result, millions of black men are
suffering in silence or getting treatment only in the most
extreme circumstances—in emergency rooms, homeless
shelters, and prisons. The neglect of emotional disorders
among men in the black community is nothing less than
racial suicide. John Head’s explosive work, Standing in the
Shadows, addresses what can be done to help those who need
it most.In this groundbreaking book, veteran journalist and
award-winning author John Head argues that the problem can
be traced back to slavery, when it was believed that blacks
were unable to feel inner pain because they had no psyche.
This myth has damaged generations of African American men
and their families and has created a society that blames
black men for being violent and aggressive without
considering that depression might be a root cause. The
author also explores the roles of the black church, the
black family, and the changing nature of black women in
American culture as a way to understand how the black
community may have unwittingly helped push the emotional
disorders of African American men further underground. As
daring and powerful as Nathan McCall’s Makes Me Wanna
Holler, Standing in the Shadows challenges both the African
American community and the psychiatric community to end the
silent suffering of black men by taking responsibility for
a problem that’s been ignored for far too long.
Additionally, Standing in the Shadows gives women an
understanding of depression that enables them to help black
men mend their relationships, their families, and
themselves.
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