Hi As I meet more students who tell me that they were put on anti-depressants for being sad after breaking up with a boy or girlfriend, and I read more about people being medicated for sadness and stress after loved ones are injured or become sick (i.e the Iraq War correspondent Woodruff's wife after he had a TBI from an injury sustained in Iraq), I am becoming thoroughly convinced that many societal forces are joining together to pathologize any type of negative emotion. There is no such thing as pathological grieving now - all grief and sadness is pathological. It's gone from the pursuit of happiness, to a right to happiness to be happy or ELSE.
I think it is our culture's illness, not ours. Nancy Melucci Long Beach City College Long Beach CA -----Original Message----- From: Dennis Goff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <[email protected]> Sent: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 7:23 am Subject: [tips] Talking back to Prozac Many of you will shake your heads (some with nods of agreement others in aggravation) at this article by Fredrick Crews from The New York Review of Books. In the article he reviews three books, and takes on “Big Pharma” and the DSM. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20851 I am thinking about asking my students to read and comment on the article. To whet your appetites “Those stigmata, furthermore, are presented in a user-friendly checklist form that awards equal value to each symptom within a disorder's entry. In Bingo style, for example, a patient who fits five out of the nine listed criteria for depression is tagged with the disorder. It is little wonder, then, that drug makers' advertisements now urge consumers to spot their own defectiveness through reprinted DSM checklists and then to demand correction via the designated pills.” Looking forward to some time to read some fiction later this week! Dennis Dennis M. Goff Chair, Department of Psychology Professor of Psychology Randolph College (Founded as Randolph-Macon Woman's College in 1891) Lynchburg VA 24503 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com ---
