Prozac as a Way of Life

Studies in Social Medicine

by Carl Elliott (Editor), Tod Chambers

Prozac and its chemical cousins, Paxil, Celexa, and Zoloft, are some of the most profitable and most widely used drugs in America. Their use in the treatment of a multitude of disorders--from generalized anxiety disorder and premenstrual syndrome to eating disorders and sexual compulsions--has provoked a whirlwind of public debate. Talk shows ask, Why is Prozac so popular? What, exactly, do these drugs treat? But sustained critical discussion among bioethicists and medical humanists has been surprisingly absent.

The eleven essays in Prozac as a Way of Life provide the groundwork for a much-needed philosophical discussion of the ethical and cultural dimensions of the popularity of SSRI antidepressants. Focusing on the increasing use of medication as a means of self-enhancement, contributors from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, bioethics, and the medical humanities address issues of identity enhancement, the elasticity of psychiatric diagnosis, and the aggressive marketing campaigns of pharmaceutical companies. They do not question the fact that these antidepressants can, in some cases, provide great benefit to alleviate real suffering. What they do question is the abundant popularity of these drugs and that popularity's relationship to American culture and ideas of selfhood.


Tod Chambers, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago
David DeGrazia, George Washington University
James C. Edwards, Furman University
Carl Elliott, University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics
David Healy, University of Wales College of Medicine
Laurence J. Kirmayer, McGill University
Peter D. Kramer, Brown University
Erik Parens, The Hastings Center
Lauren Slater, AfterCare Services, Boston
Susan Squier, Pennsylvania State University
Laurie Zoloth, Northwestern University Center for Genetic Medicine, Chicago

224 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2004

About the author

Carl Elliott is a professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Trained in medicine as well as philosophy, Elliott is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award, the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History at the Library of Congress, a resident fellowship at the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, and the Weatherhead Fellowship at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times, Mother Jones and The American Scholar. He has been a visiting faculty member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, the University of Sydney, and the University of Otago in New Zealand, where he is an affiliate of the Bioethics Centre.

Reviews

[Sam Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking, I was surprised by how interdisciplinary this books discussion was. I like how it brought different perspectives into the picture, there was enough diversity of thought for me to be able to walk away with some broad conclusions

[Henry 磊磊 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful critical cultural analysis. Especially timely now given the whole resurgence in "demedication." Glad we have philosophical and bioethical minds thinking through these issues, even if there are often conflicts of interest in who gets funded and how.