Abstract
The making and taking of psychotropic drugs, whether on medical prescription or as self-medication, whether marketed by pharmaceutical companies or clamoured for by an anxious population, has been an integral part of the twentieth century. In this modern era of speed, uncertainty, pleasure and anguish the boundaries between healing and enhancing the mind by chemical means have been redefined. Long before Prozac would become a household name for an ‘emotional aspirin’ did consumers embrace the idea and practice of taking psychotropics not only to treat mental illness but also to make them feel better about living in a modern world. The Freudian promise that each individual can remake him- or herself in the pursuit of health and happiness was helpful in promoting and legitimizing the idea and practice of seeking wellness on prescription. We will argue that the modern consumer-driven political culture of medicine will continue to transverse the boundaries of therapy and enhancement of the mind into the largely unexplored territories of human cognition and behaviour. However exciting, this endeavour will come at the cost of further widening the problem of iatrogenic addiction in the age of happiness pills as ‘botox’ for the mind.
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Notes
World wide it concerns a market of more than 25 billion $ (8 % of the total global therapeutic drug market) with average yearly growth figures of about 10%; IMS Health 2008.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the following colleagues for their comments on preliminary versions of the manuscript: Prof. Dr. Trudy Dehue, Professor of the History of Psychology, Groningen University, The Netherlands, Prof. Dr. Charles Kaplan, Professor and Associate Dean of Research at the University of Houston, College of Social Work and Prof. D. Frans J. Meijman, Professor of Medical science Communication and its History, VU Amsterdam medical center, The Netherlands.
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Pieters, T., Snelders, S. Psychotropic Drug Use: Between Healing and Enhancing the Mind. Neuroethics 2, 63–73 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-009-9033-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12152-009-9033-0