Prozac Nationalism

With the arrival of a new generation of psychoactive drugs and psychiatric diagnoses, the idea of mandatory mental health and of 'better-than-well' brains entered popular discourse in the West. We will talk about the (causal? reciprocal? co-productive? co-incidental?) relationship between medical innovation and social change, but also the iterative effects of media and artistic representations of mental health/illness on individual and cultural experiences -- from institutionalisation to activism -- of different mental states.

Weekly Questions

• In the quest for mental perfection, which comes first: the condition, the (social) 'problem', or the 'cure'?
• How do gender, race, class, culture, and/or faith intersect with understandings of mental health and illness?
• What role(s) do politics and historical context play in defining mental 'perfection' in any given historical moment?
• Can you have perfect mental health? Are we all neurotypical?

Readings and mini-lecture: See Talis