On Depression: Drugs, Diagnosis, and Despair in the Modern World
Nassir Ghaemi’s quest to make sense of the split between science and the art of psychiatry, pursued brilliantly in his previous writings, gallops ahead in this book, which ransacks the near empty cellars of post-modernism and reinstates common sense and tradition in a search for meaning in mental health and its disorders in modern life.(Michael Trimble, M.D., Institute of Neurology, London)Ghaemi’s distinction between ‘depression disease’ and ‘depression nondisease’ is pioneering and will open the eyes of a number of disease-designers who are currently struggling so mightily to classify the illnesses of psychiatry. But Ghaemi, a distinguished psychiatrist of vast clinical experience, will also open many patients’ eyes: Does my kind of depression need medication? If it isn’t depression I have, what’s going on with me? Even more penetrating: My happiness is abnormal? These are not trivial questions, and Ghaemi’s mastery of literature as well as clinical learning makes the lessons go down mighty easily.(Edward Shorter, Ph.D., FRSC, University of Toronto)Ghaemi’s great aptitude is for the provision of context. If the psychiatric encounter sometimes seems routine—paused at decisions about prescribing—still and always, so Ghaemi reminds us, it is grounded in the humane insights of generations of thinkers dedicated to the well-being of those who suffer. Ghaemi brings wisdom to bear on the series of challenges inherent in the treatment and understanding of depression.(Peter D. Kramer, author ofListening to ProzacandAgainst Depression)By any measure, this is an important book that goes where thinking about mental illness has never gone. Certainly it will play a role in proving that depression is almost a necessity to actually live and make sense of life. Nassir Ghaemi gives tremendous meaning to my own suffering.(Andy Behrman, author ofElectroboy: A Memoir of Mania)Nassir Ghaemi blends the wisdom of a seasoned clinician, the hard data of rigorous, original research, and the long view of a scholar steeped in humanities. He is an indispensable voice and with this book—among many others—he has found his place among the eminent ranks of modern writers on depression.(Joshua Wolf Shenk, author ofLincoln's Melancholy)An informed, challenging, and readable approach to a vital subject. Despair is in the title, but readers will rejoice in the reading.(Library Journal)Ghaemi is a lucid and eminently reasonable writer.(Zócalo Public Square)[On Depression] belongs in libraries serving graduate students of psychiatry, psychology, and, perhaps, philosophy.(Melissa NaseaWatermark)Clearly written, with mercifully short chapters for the uninitiated reader, Ghaemi's book elucidates how many of us already feel about the current construction of mood disorders, without having been able to articulate our misgivings.(Alexander LangfordBritish Journal of Psychiatry)This is a fun and stimulating read for anyone interested in depression and other mood disorders.(Helga MeierMetapsychology)