Since 1935, when Dupont adopted the slogan “Better Living Through Chemistry,” we have been pummeled by polymers and unduly impressed by the new and shiny. Their advertising not only changed how we thought about the rush of chemicals being delivered to us (through medicine, in our water, in our foods), but reflected a new age of humanity in which biochemistry became a cruel and indifferent king. No longer were people thought of as “heartbroken.” They were thought of as chemically imbalanced. Most people (lay and, unfortunately, professional alike) don’t know that diagnoses vary and bob along social currents. Because of the authority with which words like “clinical depression” or “bipolar” are used in modern conversation, we are given the impression that those words have a permanence and solidity they do not actually have. For instance, what we now commonly call PTSD has only been recognized as a formal disorder since 1980....(Read Full Article)