Listening to Prozac
Now in a New 30th Anniversary Edition
From the publisher:
When antidepressants like Prozac first became available, Peter D. Kramer prescribed them, only to hear patients say that on medication, they felt different—less ill at ease, more like the person they had always imagined themselves to be. Referencing disciplines from cellular biology to animal ethology, Dr. Kramer worked to explain these reports. The result was Listening to Prozac, a revolutionary book that offered new perspectives on antidepressants, mood disorders, and our understanding of the self—and that became an instant national and international bestseller.
In this thirtieth anniversary edition, Dr. Kramer looks back at the influence of his groundbreaking book, traces progress in the relevant sciences, follows trends in the use and public understanding of antidepressants, and assesses potential breakthroughs in the treatment of depression. The new introduction and afterword reinforce and reinvigorate a book that the New York Times called “originally insightful” and “intelligent and informative,” a window on a medicine that is “telling us new things about the chemistry of human character.”
Honored as "Great Brain Book" by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives
“One of the most important and provocative books on psychology I’ve seen in years…asks us to question all our assumptions about what the self is, what therapy has been and can be, and about the role of drugs in affecting behavior and personality.” - Psychology Today
“Dr. Kramer seems to be writing about the therapeutic credos of our time. The result is entertaining, provocative . . . and often originally insightful.” - The New York Times Book Review
“Kramer is a wonderful writer, and his readers will learn much about the new research on temperament and personality, biological theories of mood disorders, and the behind-the-scenes stories of how psychiatric drugs were discovered or invented.” - Los Angeles Times Book Review
“[Kramer] has taken on in a lucid and informed manner, issues that many clinicians and academics have been unwilling to tackle….His book will be truly heuristic…it will generate agreement or disagreement but, most importantly, it will generate thought and discussion. This is what one hopes for, but too rarely gets, in the public discussion of science and medicine.” - Washington Post
“Peter Kramer deals brilliantly with the complex issue of personality and questions whether a commonly used antidepressant can alter the very essence of a person’s character.” - Nature
“Intelligent and informative.” - New York Times
“Kramer presents a lucid and convincing demonstration that American psychiatry is not brain dead….It demonstrates that conceptual brilliance and innovative thinking are alive and well in our field today.” - American Journal of Psychiatry
“Kramer fruitfully examines many questions that are relevant to everyone in this post-Freudian age of medication.” - San Francisco Chronicle
“Debunks the hysteria about [Prozac], fanned by pop journalism and talk shows, and gives us instead a multifaceted exploration of what the drug can do, cannot, and perhaps should not do.” - Houston Post
"[A] thoughtful, elegantly written book." - Reason
“A wise and unflinching examination of the ramifications for society—and for the individual—when the capsule replaces the touch.” - Kirkus Reviews
“Tackles the complicated implications and assumptions of modern psychiatry.” - New York Daily News
“Extremely well-written, easy to read, serious, erudite and highly stimulating…and important and essential edition to psychiatric literature. We are fortunate to have Peter Kramer, a teacher and writer par excellence.” - Philadelphia Inquirer
A New York Times bestseller
A New York Times New and Noteworthy Paperback
Listening to Prozac is also available in British, Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish editions, and on audio cassette.