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A cure for darkness : the story of depression and how we treat it / Alex Riley.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Scribner, 2021Copyright date: ©2021Edition: First Scribner hardcover editionDescription: xi, 452 pages ; 24 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781501198779
  • 1501198777
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part one. Cutting steps into the mountain. The anatomists ; Über Coca ; "Psychiatry's Linnaeus" ; A melancholic humor ; Instruments of cure ; The talking cure ; Love and hate ; A first sketch -- Part two. "The biological approach seems to be working." Fighting fire with fire ; Unfixing thoughts ; "The brain has ceased to be sacred" ; The most powerful reaction ; Legacy ; Cerletti's monster ; The psychic energizers ; The shoes that Prozac would fill ; G22355 ; The mysterious case of the lethal headaches -- Part three. Getting therapy. In your dreams, Freud ; More than one psychotherapy ; "If mom ain't happy ain't nobody happy" ; "Happier than we Europeans" ; Kufungisisa ; Care by the community ; "I live and breathe peer" -- Part four. The universe within. It feels like spring ; Rebirth ; The epitome of hopelessness ; Mind on fire ; "For life" ; The beginning ; Surfing in the brain scanner ; "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" ; Building a new system ; Seeing with eyes shut -- Epilogue. New life.
Summary: What is depression? Is it a persistent low mood or a complex range of symptoms? Is it a single diagnosis or a diversity of mental disorders requiring different treatments? In A Cure for Darkness, science writer Alex Riley explores these questions, digging into the long history of depression and chronicling the lives of psychiatrists and scientists who sought cures for their patients.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Northport Library NonFiction 616.8527 R573 Available 33111009842614
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A fascinating, "rich, and generous" ( Financial Times ) look at the treatment of depression by an award-winning science writer that blends popular science, narrative history, and memoir.

Is depression a persistent low mood, or is it a range of symptoms? Can it be expressed through a single diagnosis, or does depression actually refer to a diversity of mental disorders? Is there, or will there ever be, a cure? In seeking the answers to these questions, Riley finds a rich history of ideas and treatments--and takes the reader on a gripping narrative journey, packed with fascinating stories like the junior doctor who discovered that some of the first antidepressants had a deadly reaction with cheese.

"Interweaving memoir, case histories, and accounts of new therapies, Riley anatomizes what is still a fairly young science, and a troubled one" ( The New Yorker ). Reporting on the field of global mental health from its colonial past to the present day, Riley highlights a range of scalable therapies, including how a group of grandmothers stands on the frontline of a mental health revolution.

Hopeful, fascinating, and profound, A Cure for Darkness is "recommended reading for anyone with even a peripheral interest in depression" ( Washington Examiner ).

Includes bibliographical references (pages 433-436) and index.

What is depression? Is it a persistent low mood or a complex range of symptoms? Is it a single diagnosis or a diversity of mental disorders requiring different treatments? In A Cure for Darkness, science writer Alex Riley explores these questions, digging into the long history of depression and chronicling the lives of psychiatrists and scientists who sought cures for their patients.

Part one. Cutting steps into the mountain. The anatomists ; Über Coca ; "Psychiatry's Linnaeus" ; A melancholic humor ; Instruments of cure ; The talking cure ; Love and hate ; A first sketch -- Part two. "The biological approach seems to be working." Fighting fire with fire ; Unfixing thoughts ; "The brain has ceased to be sacred" ; The most powerful reaction ; Legacy ; Cerletti's monster ; The psychic energizers ; The shoes that Prozac would fill ; G22355 ; The mysterious case of the lethal headaches -- Part three. Getting therapy. In your dreams, Freud ; More than one psychotherapy ; "If mom ain't happy ain't nobody happy" ; "Happier than we Europeans" ; Kufungisisa ; Care by the community ; "I live and breathe peer" -- Part four. The universe within. It feels like spring ; Rebirth ; The epitome of hopelessness ; Mind on fire ; "For life" ; The beginning ; Surfing in the brain scanner ; "Turn on, tune in, and drop out" ; Building a new system ; Seeing with eyes shut -- Epilogue. New life.

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