Listening to Prozac : The dangers behind the sirens seductive call :: Neurological Neurology Brain Essays

Listening to Prozac : The dangers behind the siren's seductive call "If the human brain were simple enough for us to understand, we would be too simple to understand it" (1). In his book Listening to Prozac, Dr. Peter Kramer thoroughly examines how Prozac has revolutionized the power of psychopharmacological medication and what it teaches us about the human self. Prozac has demonstrated the ability to transform a person's behavior, outlook, and conception of self through a neurological change of biology, thus providing more evidence that brain does indeed equal behavior. Perhaps more fascinating than the answers it provides about human neurobiology are the difficult questions, ironies, and problems its usage raises. The administration of Prozac challenges the model of healing through cognitive powers due to its purely biologic effectiveness. This success has widened the gap between the un-medicated and medicated human self. Which is the "true" reflection of a person? Do Prozac's transformations emulate an unnatural idealized social norm or release a healthy individual trapped in an unnatural state? How does this reflect or change our definitions of " illness" and "wellness"? Dr. Kramer's discussions hinge upon the idea that the nervous system controls behavior. The case studies he provides show people who, after taking Prozac, have remarkable "transformations" of multiple facets of behavior including perceptions, motivation, emotions, sense of choice, values, and personality (defined by given temperament as well as developed character). Prozac's ability to change a person so drastically on a biological level causes much apprehension because the change does not need to be processed cognitively or even consciously. Dr. Kramer asserts that this change need not coincide with any self-knowledge because it is "evidently not necessary"(32). His comment points to a desire among many that the conscious self (I-function) has a stronger influence on behavior than biology does because we intimately connect behavior with self-identity. Relying on a foreign substance to change biology (and self) without apprising and receiving sanction from the conscious-self first se ems unnatural. The utter reliance on biology without utilizing our human gift of cognition seems to be a violation of how humanity has separated itself from our own inner animal. Dr. Kramer dismisses claims that Prozac compromises our vision of humanity through changing behavior in psychobiological terms by saying, "biological models are not reductionistic but humanizing, in the sense that they restore scale and perspective and take into account the vast part of us that is not intellect" (143).