The Scar: A Personal History of Depression and Recovery

At the age of twenty-seven, Mary Cregan gives birth to her first child, a daughter she names Anna. But its apparent that something is terribly wrong, and two days later, Anna diesplunging Cregan into suicidal despair. Decades later, sustained by her work, a second marriage, and a son, Cregan reflects on this pivotal experience and attempts to make sense of it. She weaves together literature and research with details from her own ordealand the still-visible scar of her suicide attemptwhile also considering her life as part of the larger history of our understanding of depression.