Chemically Imbalanced : Everyday Suffering, Medication, and Our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery / Joseph E. Davis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis, Joseph E., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Affective disorders--Treatment.

Affective disorders.

Neurobehavioral disorders--Treatment.

Neurobehavioral disorders.

Neurobiology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (257 pages)

Other Title:

Everyday Suffering, Medication, and Our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery

Place of Publication:

Chicago : University of Chicago Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Everyday suffering—those conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyone’s lives—is something that humans have grappled with for millennia. But the last decades have seen a drastic change in the way we approach it. In the past, a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist, but now the psychological has been replaced by the biological: instead of treating the heart, soul, and mind, we take a pill to treat the brain. Chemically Imbalanced is a field report on how ordinary people dealing with common problems explain their suffering, how they’re increasingly turning to the thin and mechanistic language of the “body/brain,” and what these encounters might tell us. Drawing on interviews with people dealing with struggles such as underperformance in school or work, grief after the end of a relationship, or disappointment with how their life is unfolding, Joseph E. Davis reveals the profound revolution in consciousness that is underway. We now see suffering as an imbalance in the brain that needs to be fixed, usually through chemical means. This has rippled into our social and cultural conversations, and it has affected how we, as a society, imagine ourselves and envision what constitutes a good life. Davis warns that what we envision as a neurological revolution, in which suffering is a mechanistic problem, has troubling and entrapping consequences. And he makes the case that by turning away from an interpretive, meaning-making view of ourselves, we thwart our chances to enrich our souls and learn important truths about ourselves and the social conditions under which we live.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

ONE. The Neurobiological Imaginary

TWO. The Biologization of Everyday Suffering

THREE. Appropriating Disorder

FOUR. Resisting Differentness

FIVE. Seeking Viable Selfhood

SIX. After Psychology

CONCLUSION. A Crisis of the Spirit

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

APPENDIX

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2020)

Other Format:

Print version: Davis, Joseph E. Chemically Imbalanced : Everyday Suffering, Medication, and Our Troubled Quest for Self-Mastery.

ISBN:

9780226686714

022668671X

OCLC:

1138029287