Author: David L. Herzberg
Abstract Designer
Consciousness examines how advertisers, physicians,
activists, and patients all shaped the meanings of "wonder drugs" like Valium and Prozac through their pursuit of profit, professional or political gain, or personal relief. Their efforts did more than transform
medical practices: they also reshaped critical aspects of modern U.S. culture. As the nation's bestselling medicines, the psychotropes took a leading role in the commercialization of medicine and the merging of consumer and therapeutic cultures. Many white middle-class Americans seized on the drugs in a quest to define and attain a higher psychological standard of living; their efforts helped establish…
