Abstract In the public discourse on depression as a ‘widespread disease’ more and more athletes are giving deep insights into their experiences of depression. What kinds of stories do they typically tell? To answer this question, four autobiographical texts of elite athletes which characterise the genre in German literature are analysed. In order to relate the narrative structure of these documents to their specific societal context and understand them as a form of communication between the authors and their readers, sociological systems theory according to Niklas Luhmann is applied as an observation tool. The analysis shows that affected athletes tell sad stories about their athletic careers, which are replaced by a futurisation of happiness narrative in the course of their life story. The observed narratives are then discussed by means of an examination of their underlying individual and social functions. It is shown that they especially serve therapeutic, destigmatising as well as social advisory and amplifying functions.

中文翻译：

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美好未来的悲伤故事：精英运动员自传中抑郁故事的叙述和功能

摘要 在关于抑郁症作为一种“广泛传播的疾病”的公开讨论中，越来越多的运动员对他们的抑郁症经历有了深入的了解。他们通常讲什么样的故事？为了回答这个问题，我们分析了四本代表德国文学体裁的精英运动员的自传文本。为了将这些文件的叙述结构与其特定的社会背景联系起来，并将它们理解为作者与读者之间的一种交流形式，尼克拉斯·卢曼 (Niklas Luhmann) 的社会学系统理论被用作观察工具。分析表明，受影响的运动员讲述他们运动生涯的悲伤故事，在他们的生活故事中，这些故事被未来化的幸福故事所取代。然后通过检查它们潜在的个人和社会功能来讨论观察到的叙述。结果表明，它们尤其具有治疗、消除污名以及社会咨询和放大功能。