The New York Times bestselling examination of the revolutionary antidepressant, with a new introduction and afterword reflecting on Prozac’s legacy and the latest medical research“Peter Kramer is an analyst of exceptional sensitivity and insight. To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.” —Joyce Carol OatesWhen antidepressants like Prozac first became available, Peter D. Kramer prescribe...

In his phenomenal bestseller Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer explored the makeup of the modern self. Now, in his superbly written new book, he focuses his intelligent, compassionate eye on the complexities of partnerships and why intimacy is so difficult for us. With the art of a novelist and the skill of a brilliant psychiatrist, Kramer addresses advice seekers struggling with such complex questions as: How do we choose our partners? How well do we know them? H...

When Peter D. Kramer wrote about his work with psychiatric patients in books like Listening to Prozac and Should You Leave?, Joyce Carol Oates said, “To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.” When Kramer switched to fiction, Publishers Weekly wrote, “The depth, quality, and ambition of Kramer’s prose will surprise those expecting a superficial crossover effort.”In his new novel, Death of the Great Man...

Sigmund Freud’s life bridged the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and his reputation and influence have endured, even intensified, in the twenty-first. Often referred to as “the father of psychoanalysis,” Freud did, in fact, conceive of many of its defining characteristics: he was the original advocate of the “talking cure,” and discovered--or, some argue, invented--the human unconscious.Kramer’s take on Freud is at once critical and sympathetic: he recognizes what is archaic in...

"Deeply felt... [Kramer's] book is a polemic against a society that accepts depression as a fact of life." —O, The Oprah MagazineA profound look at depression by the author of The New York Times Bestseller, Listening to ProzacIn his landmark bestseller Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer revolutionized the way we think about antidepressants and the culture in which they are so widely used. Now Kramer offers ...

"Kramer succeeds in reconciling the two Freuds—the inventor of the modern mind and the false saint—and that is a considerable achievement." — Washington PostReferred to as "the father of psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud is credited with championing the "talking cure" and charting the human unconscious. Both revered and reviled, he was a brilliant innovator but also a man of troubling contradictions—sometimes tyrannical, often misrepresenting the course and ou...

"Ambitious, persuasive, and important . . . [Kramer] doesn't just make a case for antidepressants. He makes a case for psychiatry itself." —Jonathan Rosen, The AtlanticDo antidepressants work, or are they glorified placebos?In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharm...

THE END OF PERSONALITY?Since it was introduce in 1987, the antidepressant Prozac has been prescribed to nearly five million Americans. But what is Prozac? Reported to turn shy people into social butterflies and to improve work performance, memory, even dexterity, Prozac has changed millions of troubled lives -- but not without raising troubling questions of interest to anyone who has ever tried to improve his or her life.Is Prozac a medication, or a mental steroid...a cure ...

In his bestselling Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer asked how much happiness we have a right to expect, and how quickly we should demand it. In Should You Leave? he questioned whether trading up has replaced loyalty in intimate relationships. Critics have praised his intellect and writing, comparing him to Roth and Updike, and have anticipated his turn to fiction.Now Kramer has made that transition. Spectacular Happiness is a daring, controversial novel a...

In a novel that’s part comic mystery, part political satire, and part case vignette, a psychiatrist reviews his involvement with a narcissistic national leader who has turned up dead on the consulting room couch.When Peter D. Kramer wrote about his work with psychiatric patients in books like Listening to Prozac and Should You Leave?, Joyce Carol Oates said, “To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.”When Kramer switched to ficti...

Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients' dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of c...

In his landmark bestseller Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer revolutionized the way we think about antidepressants and the culture in which they are so widely used. Now Kramer offers a frank and unflinching look at the condition those medications treat: depression. Definitively refuting our notions of "heroic melancholy," he walks readers through groundbreaking new research—studies that confirm depression's status as a devastating disease and suggest pathways toward resili...