Architecture of the American Self

Many factors play a role in determining why certain mood disorders are more prevalent today than thirty years ago.          

In chapter three of The Face Behind The Mask, Carl Elliott breaks down the social, physical and biographical explanations as to why our American culture has seen a huge boom in the interest in social anxiety disorder and prescription drugs. In 1999, aggressive campaigns began to market and sell a message that the “answer” had been found to help heal or rid your symptoms. The message being passed on to the public was, “Your life is waiting,” and our pill will get you there (Elliott, p. 55). By taking this drug, specifically Paxil, a more socially excepted “you” would be discovered. Television advertisements went directly to consumers suggesting, “their worry and anxiety at home and at work might not be because they are just worries but because they are suffering from a treatable condition” (Rose, p. 213). In the late 1990’s GlaxoSmithKline, manufactures of Paxil began their push to relay the message to consumers and the medical field that a disease does exist for these fears, and anxieties, as does available treatment. Driven and supported by pharmaceutical companies, these advertisements that influenced and persuaded individuals into thinking they are abnormal, created a larger network of power to grow within the drug companies.  Elliott describes how the literature and articles around social phobia only just recently became a huge interest to people, especially in the mid-1980s.         

“What happened in the mid-1980s to bring about such an explosion of interest in social phobia (Elliott, p. 57)?          

Carol Elliott talks about two important events, the revision of the (DSM-III-R) and the emergence of antidepressants to improve social phobia. The first revision of the manual used to diagnose disease and disorders legitimized the term ”social phobia,” along with shaping, forming and defining itself. After being revised once more, an alternative to the original wording was used. This time it was called, “social anxiety disorder- a much softer, patient friendly term” (Elliott, p. 57). While psychiatrist worked to help patients with this social/shyness disorder, their challenge to find a drug or treatment that worked without harsh side effects was hard. Once antidepressants became the drug of choice and altering “aspects of character or behavior,” the shift to medicalize these symptoms (shyness), became the new objection (Elliott, p. 58). With these mood disorders affecting so many people, questions arise about what is going on in our culture that enables and presents situations of stress and feelings of anxiety. As our culture continues to find new pathways for technology to grow, information overload and pressure to conform to new ways of communicating becomes the norm. By promoting drugs to help cope with the new stresses that our modern culture has handed us, a market has been created, which continues to sell addictive products without specifically addressing the bigger aspects that might be causing these phobias. These drugs mask or hide the cause, making it easier to live a facade of happiness.  Carl Elliott proposes another important question:        

What historical circumstances have possibly led us to this point in our present day modern lifestyles, where companies are compelled to spend $91.8 million dollars to advertise for such drugs like Paxil?  

 

The"Clinical Gaze"

During the 19^th century, ideas around treating the body were typically based on physical appearance and bodily behavior. Diagnosis was still based on what the “clinical gaze” was able to link up with visual symptoms (Rose, p. 193). Images of the “mad” person were connected to a disorder, just as we diagnose individuals based solely on their “shyness,” something we can see.  All these decisions are created from powerful networks of institutions, deciding what is considered “normal” and “abnormal.” In the early 1970s-80s, major shifts in technology, medicine and socio-cultural views on life and death began changing. In the 1980’s, and still today, death was viewed as something “invisible,” secretive and tamed. In the early 1900’s death was accepted as part of life, and now it is something our culture tries to avoid, hide and medicalize. Along with the changing views around death, advancements in technology, computers and electronics were on the move. The early 1980s brought video games (Pac-Man arcade) into households, taking away communication between family members, and isolating children more.  All of these factors contribute to our present day culture.      

In Nikolas Rose’s article, The Politics of Life Itself, he argues that not only do many drugs used in treating certain mental disorders seek to “pacify and normalize” people, but they attempt to  control abnormalities in hopes of placing individuals back into “everyday life” (Rose, p. 210). Are we waiting for that “something” in our lives to kick in just to get us through the day?  Which direction and path will you choose to "be happy?" These underlying feelings of disconnect, alienation and competition run so deep in our society that they become part of who we “are,”  regardless if you have a disorder or not. The institutions that seek to divide and implant our minds with fear and mistrust create an overflow of paranoia, loneliness and social phobias. We are social “creatures,” not desperate individuals who live alone and in isolation.   

 Works Cited:

• Carl Elliot. 2003. “The Face Behind the Mask” AND “Amputees by Choice.” IN Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003. Pp. 54-76, 208-236. 

• Nikolas Rose, 2007. Neurochemical Selves, IN The Politics of Life Itself: Biomedicine, Power, and Subjectivity in the Twenty-First Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Pp. 187-223.

•  Can't Wait for the Valium to Hit. AngelFire, 24. Feb, 2011. <http://sevuhupi.angelfire.com/the-effects-of-paxil.html>.

•  The Conjurer . Hieronymus Bosch, 24. Feb, 2011. <http://www.ask.com/wiki/Gaze?qsrc=3044>.

• Prozac. Ready to Be Happy, 24. Feb, 2011.<http://www.podcasters3241.wordpress.com>.