One title on the list:"Against Depression" by Peter D. Kramer (Viking, 2005).Read about the other four books on Wallace's list.
Peter Kramer, the author of "Listening to Prozac," chronicles, with disapproval, the development of attitudes that portray depression as ennobling or "heroic." Melancholy, he notes, has been enshrined in the romantic imagination--witness the two great novels by men about women, "Anna Karenina" and "Madame Bovary," both of which end in the heroine's suicide. Such attitudes, he believes, and the prevalence of depression, have changed our culture, and not for the better. He considers depression an illness that must be fought. Toward that end, he provides breaking news from top research scientists about its causes and cures.
--Marshal Zeringue
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