Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation by Charles Barber

Comfortably Numb is a non-fiction exploration of the medication of America by Charles Barber. I chose it first for its attractive cover (oops, I broke the cliche) but mostly because I've always been fascinated by psychiatric medication. Charles Barber worked as a counselor for the homeless mentally ill for the past fifteen year and has watched America's attitude towards mental illness change dramatically. When he first started his work, mental illness was an issue just for 'crazy people', hidden away at all costs, and the drugs for it, while not easy to come by, were relatively inexpensive. Flash forward fifteen years and suddenly everyone is admitting their depression and bipolar disorder and guess what? Prices for the drugs have shot through the roof. Along with the attitude inspections, Barber spends a lot of time on the pharmaceutical industry and how much it wants to make money. America is one of the only countries that allows direct-to-consumer advertising for psychiatric drugs, and the book almost suggests that the money involved feuls the need for the chemicals. About 3/5ths of the way through the book it becomes rather repetitive and seems as if the author was simply fluffing for length, but the hard facts of the book combined with his personal insight made it worth the read.Here's some info about the author:

--attended Harvard University and went to Columbia for grad school

--worked for 10 years specifically with the homeless mentally ill in New York City, at places such as the Bellevue shelter

--his work has been published in the The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Nation and Scientific American Mind

--he taught nonfiction writing at Wesleyan University--he's currently a lecturer of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and runs a social service agency, 'The Connection' (which kinda sounds like a cult)

--well his website says he's a senior executive, he's actually the Director of Special projects. He helps them write grants and works with the Department of Correction to bring evidence-based practices to work-release programs around the State. which doesn't make a lot of sense, but alright

.--I have been able to discover that he has a family and lives in Connecticut, but according to the internet his life began at college

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