Gary Greenberg
In an article published in The Observer on Sunday Gary Greenberg is interviewed following publication of his new book “Manufacturing Depression”. In his book Greenberg discusses his history of depressive symptomatology and calls into question the wholesale prescription of anti-depressants ‘to deal with our reactions to life’s extreme events, or to “ordinary” human misery’. Now this could be viewed as yet another anti-psychiatry polemic but it isn’t. Greenberg doesn’t discount the use of antidepressants in appropriate cases, what he is concerned about is the commodification of suffering and human misery. His view is that big pharma has a commercial interest in ensuring that this is the case. As a psychotherapist himself it might be expected that his solution would be recourse to psychotherapy but he is unflinchingly critical of talking therapies too. Again he accepts there value in specific circumstances but concludes ultimately that “I used to think it was possible to overcome yourself in some way. Now I think what we can do is that we can move into our own stories, grapple with who we are and try to live with that.”
The Observer has three pieces online; the interview, an extract discussing his involvement with an antidepressant drug trial and a further extract detailing how he found love with his current wife through the use of ecstasy.