Why do some people still choose psychoanalysisFreuds socalled talking curewhen numerous medications are available that treat the symptoms of psychicdistress so ... » 

Why do some people still choose psychoanalysisFreuds socalled talking curewhen numerous medications are available that treat the symptoms of psychicdistress so much faster? Elisabeth Roudinesco tackles this difficult questionexploring what she sees as a depressive society an epidemic of distressaddressed only by an increasing reliance on prescription drugs.Far from contesting the efficacy of new medications like Prozac Zoloft andViagra in alleviating the symptoms of any number of mental or nervousconditions Roudinesco argues that the use of such drugs fails to solvepatients real problems. In the man who takes Viagra without ever wondering whyhe is suffering from impotence and the woman who is given antidepressants todeal with the loss of a loved one Roudinesco sees a society obsessed withefficiency and desperate for the quick fix.She argues that the talking cure and pharmacology represent not justdifferent approaches to psychiatry but different worldviews. The rush to treatsymptoms is itself symptomatic of an antiseptic and depressive culture in whichthought is reduced to the firing of neurons and desire is just a chemicalsecretion. In contrast psychoanalysis testifies to human freedom and the powerof language. «