Why do some people still choose psychoanalysis-Freud's so-called
talking cure-when numerous medications are available that treat the
symptoms of psychic distress so much faster? Elisabeth Roudinesco
tackles this difficult question, exploring what she sees as a
"depressive society": an epidemic of distress addressed only by an
increasing reliance on prescription drugs.
Far from contesting the efficacy of new medications like Prozac,
Zoloft, and Viagra in alleviating the symptoms of any number of
mental or nervous conditions, Roudinesco argues that the use of
such drugs fails to solve patients' real problems. In the man who
takes Viagra without ever wondering why he is suffering from
impotence and the woman who is given antidepressants to deal with
the loss of a loved one, Roudinesco sees a society obsessed with
efficiency and desperate for the quick fix.
She argues that "the talking cure" and pharmacology represent
not just different approaches to psychiatry, but different
worldviews. The rush to treat symptoms is itself symptomatic of an
antiseptic and depressive culture in which thought is reduced to
the firing of neurons and desire is just a chemical secretion. In
contrast, psychoanalysis testifies to human freedom and the power
of language.
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