Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of an American Disease

By Gary Greenberg

Book Overview

Author with professional and personal experience: Psychotherapist Gary Greenberg's musings on the intersection of science, politics, and ethics have graced the pages of The New Yorker , Wired , and Mother Jones. A longtime sufferer of depression, in 2007 he enrolled himself in a clinical trial for major depression (after his initial application for a minor depression trial was rejected). He wrote about his experience in a Harper's magazine piece, which received a tremendous response from readers.. "Am I happy enough?": This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. Am I not happy enough because I am depressed? is a more recent version. Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured-not as an illness, but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way.. A nation of depressives: In the twenty years since their introduction, antidepressants have become staples of our medicine chests-upwards of 30 million Americans are taking them at an annual cost of more than $10 billion. Even more important, Greenberg argues, it has become common, if not mandatory, to think of our unhappiness as a disease that can, and should, be treated by medication. Manufacturing Depression tells the story of how we got to this peculiar point in our history. .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416569790
• ISBN13: 9781416569794
• Release Date: February 2010
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.4" x 9.4"