"Black Dogs and Blue Words is written in an accessible, clear style that will appeal to both experts and non-experts alike. In the field of rhetoric, this book is a major addition that aims to open up the gendered behaviors of depression in person/patient care. Emmons's text crosses disciplines in a way that is comprehensible to a wide audience."
~Barbara Heifferon, professor, department of English, Rochester Institute of Technology
"Emmons' book offers a useful and illuminating contribution to the study of depression that will be of interest to sociologists."
~Sociology of Health and Illness
"Emmons writes insightfully about depression's gendered quality and the popular inclination to 'self-doctoring.' With her notion of 'rhetorical care of the self,' she offers a novel way of responding to the experience known as depression."
~Judy Z. Segal, author of Health and the Rhetoric of Medicine
"In Black Dogs and Blue Words, Kimberly Emmons beautifully articulates how depression is a nuanced form of communication that calls upon a host of cultural metaphors, tropes, stories, and genres. Brilliantly argued and clearly written, this book pushes understandings of mental illness and its discontents into exciting new terrain. It is required reading for anyone interested in understanding our minds, our selves, and the ways we communicate with others."
~Jonathan Metzl, author of The Protest Psychosis
