Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self, Revised Edition Paperback – September 1, 1997 Author: Visit Amazon's Peter D. Kramer Page | Language: English | ISBN:
0140266712 | Format: PDF, EPUB
Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self, Revised Edition – September 1, 1997 Download books file now Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self, Revised Edition – September 1, 1997 for everyone book 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link
Amazon.com Review
Psychiatrist Peter Kramer's book
Listening to Prozac created a sensation when it was released in 1993, and it remains the most fascinating look at the new generation of antidepressants. Kramer found that the changes in brain chemistry brought about by Prozac had a wide variety of effects, often giving users greater feelings of self-worth and confidence, less sensitivity to social rejection, and even a greater willingness to take risks. He cites cases of mildly depressed patients who took the drug and not only felt better but underwent remarkable personality transformations--which he (along with many of the book's readers) found disconcerting, leading him to question whether the medicated or unmedicated version was the person's "real" self. Kramer has been criticized for seeming to advocate Prozac over psychotherapy or as a way of achieving personality changes not directly related to the disease of depression, such as improving one's social confidence or job performance. In fact, he makes no such recommendations; he was simply the first popular writer to suggest that these changes might occur. (He answers those critics in the afterword to this 1997 edition.) For anyone considering taking antidepressants or wanting a better understanding of the effects these drugs are having on our society,
Listening to Prozac is a very important book.
From Library Journal
Kramer, a practicing psychiatrist, finds that the antidepressant Prozac is a powerful drug that lifts the veil of depression from most patients without significant side effects. While he unquestionably supports the use of medication to alleviate illness, he questions using drugs to make a person feel "better than well." It is the remarkable ability of Prozac to create personality changes that he finds disturbing. Is it ethical to prescribe a drug that increases a person's self-confidence, resilience, and energy level without any ill effect, when there is no underlying manifestation of illness? What is the essence of personhood and what are the philosophical implications of using drugs to alter personality? Both Kramer's unequivocal endorsement of Prozac for the treatment of depression and the questions he raises about the use of drugs for mood alteration are controversial. A glossary would have been a useful addition for lay readers. Recommended.
- Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr. Lib., PhiladelphiaCopyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
See all Editorial Reviews
Books with free ebook downloads available Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self, Revised Edition – September 1, 1997
- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books; Revised edition (September 1, 1997)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0140266712
- ISBN-13: 978-0140266719
- Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.5 x 8.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #187,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Books > Medical Books > Pharmacology > Neuropsychopharmacology
- #53 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > Psychopharmacology
- #53 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Psychopharmacology
I had a desire to go back and reread this work on the tenth anniversary of its publication. I was curious to see how Dr. Peter Kramer's magnificent essay of the mysteries of mood and matter had stood the test of time. I was also interested to see how far the psychiatric-pharmaceutical complex had come in the past decade in dealing with the scourge of depression and other mental disorders.
But before I get too far ahead of myself, exactly what was it about this book that made it such a provocative success in 1993? Two factors come to mind almost immediately. The first is the remarkable story-telling and philosophical style of the author. Yes, the crux of this work was the ethical dilemma of physicians who for the first time possessed the legal and medicinal power to alter personality cosmetically. But we forget over the years that this book was much more than a pharmaceutical morality play. It was a fascinating look at the pioneers of the biotechnology era, a glimpse into the hit and miss processes whereby paradigms and hypotheses were transformed into molecular formulas. The author made lucid for the general public just how mysterious the matrix between the material and the metaphysical truly is. That the new psychotropic drugs could morph a wallflower into a grand dame was becoming evident, so to speak, but the reasons for the change remained well educated guesses, and nothing more, in 1993. Such a tale was both tantalizing and troubling, and no one before Kramer had quite animated psychiatry while circumscribing it in such an elegant way.
The second attraction of this book was the drug itself, Fluoxetine, marketed under the brand name Prozac. Prozac was not the only member of new wave antidepressants, the Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, or SSRI's, available in 1993.
Listening to Prozac: The Landmark Book About Antidepressants and the Remaking of the Self, Revised Edition – September 1, 1997 Download
Please Wait...