Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease
by: Greenberg, Gary

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 432 pages. "Am I happy enough?": This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. Am I not happy enough because I am depressed? is a more recent version. Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured--not as an illness, but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way. "Greenberg['s] bouts of deep depressions [are] smartly conveyed here, including [his] participation in a clinical trial for an antidepressant...the author engages in extended, illuminating discussions of a host of therapeutic techniques, the confounding power of the placebo effect, the evolution of psychopharmacology and the ways in which expectations shape response. A humanistic, witty exploration of the human response to depression." --Kirkus. Clean copy.