Prozac as a Way of Life is a
collection of twelve articles, and a helpful introduction, by contemporary
thinkers on the impact of Prozac and other SSRIs on medicine, psychiatry, and
American culture.  The most prominent
issue is the role of Prozac as a life enhancer as opposed to a drug to
alleviate the symptoms of a mental illness. The authors include Peter Kramer,
David Healy, Lauren Slater, and Carl Elliott. 
Philosophers and bioethicists will probably also know the names of Erik
Parens, David DeGrazia, Laurie Zoloth and Tod Chambers.  The book is in three sections, although this
division is somewhat artificial since the articles overlap a great deal in
themes. 

Unsurprisingly, many of the
articles start from Peter Kramer’s groundbreaking Listening to Prozac,
which is still one of the most philosophical books to ever become a
bestseller.  They address the ethics of
cosmetic psychopharmacology, which Kramer set out so well in his book, and they
generally take a somewhat critical attitude to the non-medical use of
Prozac.  Most focus on the use of
medication to treat subclinical symptoms of depression, although Slater also
brings in the use of SSRIs to treat sexual compulsivity.  The articles are written at a fairly
accessible level and should be understandable to non-philosophers.  Several of them focus on cases, especially
those originally discussed by Kramer in his book. 

This collection serves a useful
purpose in showing the ability of academics to address cultural issues stemming
from the growth of the drug industry and the conceptually challenging terrain
of modern psychiatry.  The authors are
thoughtful and careful, generally avoiding any wild claims about the dangers of
the new medications and documenting their empirical assumptions.  Most are written is standard academic prose,
with the exception being Slater’s, which is very much in the style of her other
journalistic work for publications such as Harper’s and The New York
Times Sunday Magazine, detailing her conversations with others and her
personal reactions and reflections to the people she meets.  Slater is an engaging writer and so her
contribution is a pleasure to read, although it is more difficult to fit her
ideas into other standard debates. 

For those who have been paying
attention to the scholarly debates over the cultural place of Prozac, there is
little here that is new.  A well-known
issue of the Hastings Center Report was devoted to the issue a few years
ago, and there is considerable overlap between that publication and this
book.  Healy’s ideas on antidepressants
have appeared in many places already, and Elliott published a book on the topic
a couple of years ago.  Erik Parens
edited a collection on enhancement, Enhancing Human Traits, a few years
ago.  Maybe the most original part of
the book is the last one, which contains three papers on "Prozac and the
East."  However, they are quite
short papers and while they are certainly interesting, it is hard to know what
to make of them or how to evaluate how they would fit in with the general
topic.  They seem quite personal and
idiosyncratic, so while they may stimulate readers to further reflection, they
may not push the reader to any particular conclusion.  This is probably a reflection of the nature of sophisticated
psychiatric cultural criticism, where it is very difficult to come to definite
conclusions since there are no simple connections between one’s personal life
and societal trends.  The authors in
this book are doing difficult work, and while readers may not connect with all
the papers, they should find several that are especially provocative. 

© 2005 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved. 

Links:

·       
The David Healy Affair website

·       
Review of Carl Elliott, Better than Well.

·       
Hastings Center Report issue on cosmetic psychopharmacology: articles by David Healy, David DeGrazia, Carl Elliott, Peter Kramer, and Jim Edwards.

·       
Erik Parens (Editor), Enhancing Human Traits

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities
Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long
Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Review.  His
main research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and
psychology.

Categories: Philosophical, Ethics, Medications