Manufacturing Depression - The Secret History of a Modern Disease
Author(s): Gary Greenberg
According to the Office of National Statistics, depression occurs in 1 in 10 adults in Britain at any one time. But what constitutes depression? And what role have the pharmaceutical companies played in creating an idea of depression that turns human beings into neurochemical machines? Where does that leave the human spirit? Do we ask and expect too much of science, rather than accepting that there are important matters about which we may always be unsure? Could this lack of certainty be at the heart of what it means to be human? In his fascinating account of the close relationship between psychiatric diagnosis and the pharmaceutical industries, Gary Greenberg uses his personal experience over a two-year exposure to drug testing and different therapies for depression, backed up by twenty years of professional practice as a psychotherapist, to answer these questions and unravel the 'Secret History of a Modern Disease'.
Product Information
Depression is a real problem for the UK - 10% of the population suffers from depression and our expenditure on drugs to treat it is GBP270m per annum and growing A fascinating, groundbreaking treatise against the current attitudes to and treating of depression - mixing personal account with hard facts, this is a readable book about an increasingly important issue Shortlisted in the general non-fiction category of the Medical Journalists Association book awards
PRAISE FOR 'THE NOBLE LIE' 'Impressive and fascinating round-up' New Scientist 'What is an illness? What is good health? What, for that matter, is medical science really for? Greenberg will make you think about these questions in ways that I'm willing to bet you haven't. Along the way, he will enlighten and amuse and provoke you in equal measure. A wonderful book from a terrific writer.' William Finnegan, author of Cold New World: Growing Up in a Harder Country
Gary Greenberg has a doctorate in psychology and has been a practising psychotherapist for more than twenty years. He is the author of The Self on the Shelf: Recovery Books and the Good Life and major articles for McSweeney's, The New Yorker and Harpers. He lives in Connecticut.
General Fields
- :
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- : 01 February 2010
- : 198mm X 129mm X 27mm
- : United Kingdom
- : 01 March 2011
- : books
Special Fields
- : 448
- : good
- : good
- : 615.78
- : Paperback
- : Gary Greenberg