Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease

"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. Psychotherapist Gary 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.

In the twenty years since their introduction, antidepressants have become staples of our medicine chests. Upwards of 30 million Americans are taking them at an annual cost of more than $10 billion. Even more important, Greenberg argues, it has become common, if not mandatory, to think of our unhappiness as a disease that can—and should—be treated by medication. Manufacturing Depression tells the story of how we got to this peculiar point in our history.