Everyday suffering : the quest for self-mastery in the age of the brain

Description

“In Everyday Suffering, sociologist Joseph E. Davis explores the motivations of the millions of Americans who take mood-altering drugs not for a serious mental illness, but to help deal with the problems and suffering of everyday life. Whereas in the past, a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist, the psychological has been replaced by the biological: instead of treating the heart, soul, and mind, we now take a prescription to treat the brain. Davis explores how this change has affected our sense of ourselves as people in the world. What do ordinary people find compelling in neurobiological interpretations and interventions? And what do these interpretations and interventions help them to be? In the end, Davis argues for more reflection on our social emotions in a way that neurobiological diagnoses drive out, for the frameworks that valorize everyday suffering as an opportunity to enrich the soul, to learn important truths about ourselves and the human condition. We miss out when we let a pill take those opportunities away”– Provided by publisher