The Age of Anxiety: A History of America's Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers PDF
Preview The Age of Anxiety: A History of America's Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers
0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page A PRAISE FOR The Age of Anxiety “If you’ve ever felt your nervousness dissolve after taking a benzodi- azepine you may have wondered if such drugs are too good to be true. This book answers that question.Filled with personal stories and histor- ical details,The Age ofAnxietyis a fascinating read.” —Samuel Barondes,author of Better Than Prozac “Andrea Tone traces the rocky, winding road leading to one of the burning social issues in contemporary American society, and, for that matter, all other post-industrial societies: the love affair with pharma- ceutically relieving anxiety.This book unravels the restless social turbu- lence that has made millions become citizens of Miltown and created a vast multinational industrial complex serving their need for switching on inner calm.This is a captivating story of our times told by a superbly talented scholar who is able to make complex historical analysis a tale for everyone.” —Dorothy Porter,professor and chair,Department of Anthropology,History,and Social Medicine,University of California,San Francisco “Conventionally,pills are discovered by scientists and marketed by drug companies but in the case of Miltown and Valium,ordinary people dis- covered the pills—executives in their offices, salesmen on the road, women in their kitchens, students at college—as they coped with the emergence of faceless dangers.The fifties and sixties were a time of be- lief in the power of science to help us cope with life,but in turning to pharmaceutical companies our forefathers created a new world in which we’re now enmeshed.Charting a way forward is hardly possible without understanding where we have come from.The Age ofAnxietyis an indispensable account of the pilgrims’ arrival on the new continent of tranquility.” —David Healy,MD,professor of psychiatry,Cardiff University;author of Let Them Eat Prozacand Mania 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page B “In this compelling and masterful narrative, Andrea Tone documents America’s love/hate relationship with tranquilizers; it is a must-read for those who consume the drugs and also for those who do not.Tone uses sources as diverse as consumer letters to the FDA,pharmaceutical com- pany records, the scripts of Hollywood films, and transcripts of Senate hearings to help us understand why the Age of Anxiety has lasted for six decades,and why men as well as women,children as well as adults,physi- cians as well as patients are so likely to be popping pills—and so unwill- ing to stop.” —Ruth Schwartz Cowan,Janice and Julian Bers Professor, University of Pennsylvania;author of Heredity and Hope “Extensively researched and convincingly argued,The Age ofAnxiety sets the gold standard for histories of contemporary pharmacology. It is re- quired reading for anyone interested in the ways in which psychiatric drugs become metabolized into the American popular imagination.” —Jonathan M.Metzl,author of Prozac On the Couch “This gripping book is much more than a history of psychopharmaceu- tical invention; it is an account of our fears and fantasies about pills.... The Age ofAnxietyis a remarkable window into modern America and the ways in which Americans choose to live their lives.” —Tanya Luhrmann,author of OfTwo Minds: An Anthropologist Looks at American Psychiatry 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page i THE AGE OF ANXIETY 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page ii ALSO BY ANDREA TONE Medicating Modern America Devices and Desires The Business of Benevolence Controlling Reproduction 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page iii The Age of Anxiety A History of America’s Turbulent Affair with Tranquilizers A N D R E A T O N E A Member of the Perseus Books Group New York 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page iv Copyright © 2009 by Andrea Tone Published by Basic Books, A Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.For information,address the Perseus Books Group,387 Park Avenue South,New York,NY 10016-8810. Books published by Basic Books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations,institutions,and other organizations.For more information,please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group,2300 Chestnut Street,Suite 200, Philadelphia,PA 19103,or call (800) 810-4145,ext.5000,or e-mail [email protected]. Designed by Brent Wilcox Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Tone,Andrea,1964– The age of anxiety :a history of America’s turbulent affair with tranquilizers / Andrea Tone. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-465-08658-0 (alk.paper) 1.Tranquilizing drugs—United States—History.2.Antipsychotic drugs— United States—History.I.Title. [DNLM:1.Antipsychotic Agents—history—United States.2.Anxiety Disorders—drug therapy—United States.3.Pharmaceutical Preparations— history—United States.QV 11 AA1 T664a 2009] RM333.T66 2009 615'.7882—dc22 2008032718 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page v For Sophia 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page vi This page intentionally left blank 0465086580-Tone.qxd 11/5/08 11:49 AM Page vii CONTENTS Preface ix 1 Anxiety Before the Tranquilizer Revolution 1 2 The Making of Miltown 27 3 The Fashionable Pill 53 4 Psychiatry in the Medicine Cabinet 69 5 Arsenals of the Anxious 93 6 Corporate Choreography and Molecular Play 117 7 Suffering Amid the Silence 141 8 Mother’s Little Helpers 175 9 Tranquilizers on Trial 203 Acknowledgments 233 Notes 237 Index 289 vii
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