How Everyone Became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown

The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Medical, Reference, History
Cover of the book How Everyone Became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown by Edward Shorter, Oxford University Press, USA
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Edward Shorter ISBN: 9780199978250
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA Publication: January 19, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Edward Shorter
ISBN: 9780199978250
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Publication: January 19, 2013
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

About one American in five receives a diagnosis of major depression over the course of a lifetime. That's despite the fact that many such patients have no mood disorder; they're not sad, but suffer from anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, or a tendency to obsess about the whole business. "There is a term for what they have," writes Edward Shorter, "and it's a good old-fashioned term that has gone out of use. They have nerves." In How Everyone Became Depressed , Edward Shorter, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and 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, and as was recognized as early as the 1600s. Shorter traces the evolution of the concept of "nerves" and the "nervous breakdown" in western medical thought. He points to a great paradigm shift in the first third of the twentieth century, driven especially by Freud, that transferred behavioral 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 real and very serious illness, he argues; it should not be diagnosed so promiscuously, and certainly not without regard to the rest of the body. Meloncholia, he writes, "the quintessence of the nervous breakdown, reaches deep into the endocrine system, which governs the thyroid and adrenal glands among other organs." In a learned yet provocative challenge to psychiatry, Shorter argues that the continuing misuse of "depression" represents nothing less than "the failure of the scientific imagination."

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

About one American in five receives a diagnosis of major depression over the course of a lifetime. That's despite the fact that many such patients have no mood disorder; they're not sad, but suffer from anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, or a tendency to obsess about the whole business. "There is a term for what they have," writes Edward Shorter, "and it's a good old-fashioned term that has gone out of use. They have nerves." In How Everyone Became Depressed , Edward Shorter, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and 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, and as was recognized as early as the 1600s. Shorter traces the evolution of the concept of "nerves" and the "nervous breakdown" in western medical thought. He points to a great paradigm shift in the first third of the twentieth century, driven especially by Freud, that transferred behavioral 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 real and very serious illness, he argues; it should not be diagnosed so promiscuously, and certainly not without regard to the rest of the body. Meloncholia, he writes, "the quintessence of the nervous breakdown, reaches deep into the endocrine system, which governs the thyroid and adrenal glands among other organs." In a learned yet provocative challenge to psychiatry, Shorter argues that the continuing misuse of "depression" represents nothing less than "the failure of the scientific imagination."

More books from Oxford University Press, USA

Cover of the book Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson : A Study in Character by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Affective Neuroscience : The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945-1974 by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Into The Silent Land : A Guide To The Christian Practice Of Contemplation by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book George Washington's Mount Vernon : At Home in Revolutionary America by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Pride and Joy:A Guide to Understanding Your Child's Emotions and Solving Family Problems by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics and Religion by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Critical Theory:A Very Short Introduction by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book The Body in Pain:The Making and Unmaking of the World by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Hard Times by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions : Standards and Cases by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book The Oxford Companion to Beer by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book Archimedes To Hawking : Laws Of Science And The Great Minds Behind Them by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book A Well-Regulated Militia : The Founding Fathers And The Origins Of Gun Control In America by Edward Shorter
Cover of the book A Dictionary of Epidemiology by Edward Shorter
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy