Chapter ID: CBB495604063

The Problem of Suffering in the Age of Prozac: A Case Study of the Depression Memoir (2016)

unapi

Simko, Christina (Author)


Pages: 63-83
Publication date: 2016
Language: English


In 1990, the novelist William Styron published Darkness Visible, a brief, unrelentingly intense memoir describing his plunge into the depths of suicidal depression. His personal story gripped the public: It hit the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list and reinvigo­rated interest in Styron’s other work.¹ Since the appearance of Darkness Visible, the depression memoir has become a veritable genre in its own right. Elizabeth Wurtzel’s 1994 account of her illness, Prozac Nation, also soared to bestseller status, eventually inspiring a motion picture with the same title. The stream has continued, with scholars (Sharon O’Brien, Eric Wilson),...

...More
Included in

Book Joseph E. Davis; Ana Marta Gonzalez (2016) To Fix or To Heal: Patient Care, Public Health, and the Limits of Biomedicine. unapi

Citation URI
data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB495604063

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Similar Citations

Book Wolf Lepenies; (2018)
Melancolía y sociedad (/p/isis/citation/CBB947255221/) unapi

Book Dowbiggin, Ian Robert; (2011)
The Quest for Mental Health: A Tale of Science, Medicine, Scandal, Sorrow, and Mass Society (/p/isis/citation/CBB001251120/) unapi

Book Jaipreet Virdi; (2020)
Hearing Happiness: Deafness Cures in History (/p/isis/citation/CBB945172024/) unapi

Article Daniel Huang; (2022)
Cyber Solace: Historicizing an Online Forum for Patients with Depression, 1990–1999 (/p/isis/citation/CBB011577777/) unapi

Article Molaro, Aurelio; (2020)
La ‘logica immanente’ della follia: Biochimica e fenomenologia in Roland Kuhn (1912-2005) (/p/isis/citation/CBB888077865/) unapi

Book Bita Moghaddam; (2021)
Ketamine (/p/isis/citation/CBB929329054/) unapi

Article Hirshbein, Laura D.; (2006)
Science, Gender, and the Emergence of Depression in American Psychiatry, 1952--1980 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000671051/) unapi

Article Baumeister, Alan A.; Hawkins, Mike F.; Uzelac, Sarah M.; (2003)
The Myth of Reserpine-Induced Depression: Role in the Historical Development of the Monoamine Hypothesis (/p/isis/citation/CBB000340385/) unapi

Article Horwitz, Allan V.; (2011)
Naming the Problem That Has No Name: Creating Targets for Standardized Drugs (/p/isis/citation/CBB001221532/) unapi

Article Held, Lisa; Rutherford, Alexandra; (2012)
Can't a Mother Sing the Blues? Postpartum Depression and the Construction of Motherhood in Late 20th-Century America (/p/isis/citation/CBB001210162/) unapi

Article McGoey, Linsey; (2010)
Profitable Failure: Antidepressant Drugs and the Triumph of Flawed Experiments (/p/isis/citation/CBB000953791/) unapi

Article Pieters, Toine; Majerus, Benoît; (2011)
The Introduction of Chlorpromazine in Belgium and the Netherlands (1951--1968); Tango between Old and New Treatment Features (/p/isis/citation/CBB001221534/) unapi

Article Jean-Paul Gaudillière; Lucie Gerber; (2016)
Marketing Masked Depression: Physicians, Pharmaceutical Firms, and the Redefinition of Mood Disorders in the 1960s and 1970s (/p/isis/citation/CBB665653849/) unapi

Article Uttien, Jan; Pieters, Toine; Meijman, Frans J.; (2002)
“Margriet weet raad op nervositeit”. Medische betekenistoekenning aan “levensmoeilijkheden” in het vrouwenblad Margriet 1950-1960 (/p/isis/citation/CBB000770564/) unapi

Article Oded Heilbronner; (2021)
The mentally ill and how they were perceived in young Israel (/p/isis/citation/CBB520900198/) unapi

Book Ghaemi, S. Nassir; (2013)
On Depression: Drugs, Diagnosis, and Despair in the Modern World (/p/isis/citation/CBB001553380/) unapi

Article Godderis, Rebecca; (2013)
A Tricky Object to Classify: Evidence, Postpartum Depression and the DSM-IV (/p/isis/citation/CBB001320226/) unapi

Article Lenny van Rosmalen; Maartje P. C. M. Luijk; Frank C. P. van der Horst; (2022)
Harry Harlow's pit of despair: Depression in monkeys and men (/p/isis/citation/CBB555024602/) unapi

Authors & Contributors
Pieters, Toine
Abraham, John
Baumeister, Alan A.
Davis, Courtney
Dowbiggin, Ian Robert
Gaudillière, Jean-Paul
Journals
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Gewina
History of Psychiatry
Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Asociación Española de Neuropsiquiatría
Johns Hopkins University Press
MIT Press
University of Chicago Press
Concepts
Depression
Psychiatry
Mental disorders and diseases
Diagnosis
Medicine and society
Pharmacy
People
Harlow, Harry Frederick
Roland Kuhn
Time Periods
20th century, late
19th century
21st century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Great Britain
Israel
Switzerland
Netherlands
Institutions
United States. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA)
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment