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Summary
Summary
The author explores the relationship between pills and personhood by listening to a group of experts who rarely get the chance to speak on the matter of depression - those who are taking the medications. This book provides portraits of people attempting to make sense of a complex process.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This engaging, well-written book begins with a harrowing account of the author's own struggle to go off his meds. While this is certainly a gripping way to begin the book, it is more important in establishing Karp's credentials as someone who knows first hand what psychiatric drugs can do. The fifty subjects interviewed for the book range from teenagers to retirees and represent a variety of occupations, from high school and university students to medical doctors. The book is organized loosely around the trajectory those on meds tend to follow: from initial encounter, to enthusiasm and cooperation, to rebellion and finally to acceptance. Karp has a philosophical, almost spiritual take on the relationship between human beings and psychiatric medication: "In contrast to other medications ? psychotropic drugs ? act on?and perhaps even create?people's consciousness and, therefore, have profound effects on the nature of their identities." Though a proponent of antidepressants, Karp's book goes beyond an examination of drug effects to question "exactly what makes us human," and examine those human qualities that allow medication to do its work, among them hope, communication and the ability to learn from our suffering. Karp's use of interviews rather than statistics will resonate with those interested in narrative approaches to the social sciences, and his straightforward explanations of complex psychiatric concepts make the book accessible to those without a background in research psychiatry. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Booklist Review
Early on, Karp states that his goal in writing this book is to let those who practice the healing arts know that human beings are not inanimate receptacles for medical treatments. The sociology professor wants to do this because he believes that medical professionals rarely think about anything but a psychiatric drug's effect on biological cells, and that the same drug can have vastly different effects on different persons or on the same person at different times in his or her life. Laying bare his own lifelong struggle with depression and often having to juggle a veritable cocktail of drugs, Karp says he has often wondered whether his personality is his own or just some kicked-up by-product of the meds. Even though the answer remains elusive, at least for him, he seems to be in good company, and his story combines with the alternately plaintive and upbeat psychiatric drug experiences of 50 interviewees, all diagnosed with various mental illnesses, to put a poignant face behind the title question. --Donna Chavez Copyright 2006 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Beginning with questions emerging from his own experience with psychiatric medication for depression, Karp (sociology, Boston Coll.; Speaking of Sadness: Depression, Disconnection, and the Meanings of Illness) addresses issues crucial to anyone using antidepressants. In particular, he explores the existential matter of selfhood. Since the purpose of psychiatric medication is to alter one's brain chemistry, in turn altering one's personality, what, then, constitutes one's real identity? In using antidepressants, does one achieve full selfhood-or become someone else altogether? This fundamental two-part question, touched on previously in Peter D. Kramer's Listening to Prozac, Lauren Slater's Prozac Diary, and Peter R. Breggin's Toxic Psychiatry, is hardly original, but Karp's approach stands out. Unlike many researchers, he relies on interviews, insisting-accurately, in this instance-that qualitative methods can yield better results than quantitative approaches in subjective areas. This allows for poignant commentary as interviewees voice their thoughts and fears concerning medication and authenticity. Highly recommended for all public and university library collections.-Lynne F. Maxwell, Villanova Univ. Sch. of Law Lib., PA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Prologue: Doxepin Diary |
| 1 Giving Voice |
| 2 Unwelcome Careers |
| 3 Married to Medication |
| 4 Searching for Authenticity |
| 5 Significant Others |
| 6 Teens Talk |
| 7 High on Drugs |
| Epilogue: Lessons from the Inside |
| Appendix A Getting Stories Straight |
| Appendix B Commonly Prescribed Drugs for Anxiety and Depression |
| Notes |
| Acknowledgments |
| Index |
