Dr. Christian
Book Review for Manufacturing Depression
Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease is an journey that seeks to challenge the ideas of what constitutes as depression. As the author, Gary Greenberg, challenges the medical industry, he manages to present a compelling argument. Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist in Connecticut. Looking at his background, we can say that he has the credentials to be writing on this topic. He actually was diagnosed with major clinical depression (Greenberg 38), which makes it understandable as to why he would be interested in this topic. His purpose of writing the book isn’t implied. In fact, it’s rather explicit, as he states, “I’m writing this book in part because …show more content…
We know that when someone is not feeling like themselves, or they’re in a state of sadness, unhappiness, or just plain emptiness, we tell them to go see a doctor. We assume that the doctor is going to prescribe a medication. We may have been socialized into thinking that medication is our only/best solution to fighting “depression.” This is also critical because someone who is feeling like this may not be “depressed.” He or she may just be sad or may be going through a hard time. Once that label of “depression” is imposed on a person, it is very difficult for this person to escape the box they’ve been put it. It would start to act as a confirmation bias, in which every single feeling of sadness or emptiness is just a result of his or her depression. “Oh, I’m feeling sad right now because I’m a depressed person.” It would make sense that this thought would travel through someone’s head after finding out that they’ve been diagnosed with depression. They would associate every single sad feeling with their …show more content…
His song is called “Kevin,” and it’s about a dear friend of his who had overdosed on prescriptive drugs. It, too, challenges the medical industry. He further elaborates on this idea by describing its cyclical nature, and how the prescriptions can pile up for someone. In the song, Macklemore raps, “First dealer was his mom’s medicine cabinet / Got anxiety? Better go and give him a Xanax / Focus? Give him Adderall. Sleep? Give him Ambien. / ‘Til he’s walking ‘round the city looking like a mannequin” (Haggerty, 2016, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Culturally, this idea is spreading and becoming more prevalent. If one is interested in this book, I would highly recommend this song, as it presents the prescriptive nature in its cyclical
Book Review for Manufacturing Depression
Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease is an journey that seeks to challenge the ideas of what constitutes as depression. As the author, Gary Greenberg, challenges the medical industry, he manages to present a compelling argument. Greenberg is a practicing psychotherapist in Connecticut. Looking at his background, we can say that he has the credentials to be writing on this topic. He actually was diagnosed with major clinical depression (Greenberg 38), which makes it understandable as to why he would be interested in this topic. His purpose of writing the book isn’t implied. In fact, it’s rather explicit, as he states, “I’m writing this book in part because …show more content…
We know that when someone is not feeling like themselves, or they’re in a state of sadness, unhappiness, or just plain emptiness, we tell them to go see a doctor. We assume that the doctor is going to prescribe a medication. We may have been socialized into thinking that medication is our only/best solution to fighting “depression.” This is also critical because someone who is feeling like this may not be “depressed.” He or she may just be sad or may be going through a hard time. Once that label of “depression” is imposed on a person, it is very difficult for this person to escape the box they’ve been put it. It would start to act as a confirmation bias, in which every single feeling of sadness or emptiness is just a result of his or her depression. “Oh, I’m feeling sad right now because I’m a depressed person.” It would make sense that this thought would travel through someone’s head after finding out that they’ve been diagnosed with depression. They would associate every single sad feeling with their …show more content…
His song is called “Kevin,” and it’s about a dear friend of his who had overdosed on prescriptive drugs. It, too, challenges the medical industry. He further elaborates on this idea by describing its cyclical nature, and how the prescriptions can pile up for someone. In the song, Macklemore raps, “First dealer was his mom’s medicine cabinet / Got anxiety? Better go and give him a Xanax / Focus? Give him Adderall. Sleep? Give him Ambien. / ‘Til he’s walking ‘round the city looking like a mannequin” (Haggerty, 2016, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis). Culturally, this idea is spreading and becoming more prevalent. If one is interested in this book, I would highly recommend this song, as it presents the prescriptive nature in its cyclical