| Summary: | In this paper I will engage in a dialogue with new materialism within feminist theory. I will do this though depression and the use of the type of antidepressants named SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), often talked about under the commercial brand of Prozac, and through the work of Elizabeth Wilson. I have researched experiences of using antidepressants through in-depth interviews, and I find Elizabeth Wilson’s interventions in discussing depression and antidepressants as part of new materialism interesting and challenging. I like to think with Wilson because she links to two central interventions in feminist studies, on the one hand with psychoanalysis and on the other with the natural sciences. I start out with discussing how I see the founding gestures of New Materialism identified by Sara Ahmed, is played out in Wilson’s writings. I will then try to move beyond these, to explore three positions that I can inhabit, find myself thrown into when resisting the urge to leave due to the confusion and/or anger over the founding gestures. The three positions are seduced, embodying the reality principle, and making sense of propositions. I will end by confessing to my position of a successor science child and reflect over the consequences that have for my engagements with Wilson as one part of New Materialism.
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