How everyone became depressed : the rise and fall of the nervous breakdown / Edward Shorter.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shorter, Edward, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Depression, Mental.

Affective disorders.

Stress (Psychology).

Neurasthenia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages)

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

In this work, Edward Shorter, a professor of psychiatry & the history of medicine argues for a return to the old fashioned concept of nervous illness. These are, he writes, diseases of the entire body, not the mind, & as was recognized as early as the 1600s. Shorter traces the evolution of the concept of 'nerves' & the 'nervous breakdown' in western medical thought. He points to a great paradigm shift in the first third of the 20th century that transferred behavioural disorders from neurology to psychiatry, spotlighting the mind, not the body. The catch-all term 'depression' now applies to virtually everything, 'a jumble of non-disease entities, created by political infighting within psychiatry, by competitive struggles in the pharmaceutical industry, and by the whimsy of the regulators.' Depression is a & very serious illness - it should not be diagnosed without regard to the rest of the body.

Notes:

Previously issued in print: 2013.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher information

Other Format:

Print version

ISBN:

9780197563304

0197563309

OCLC:

1222774636

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.