Peter D. Kramer

Peter D. Kramer, M.D., is an American psychiatrist, former Marshall Scholar and faculty member of Brown Medical School specializing in the area of depression. He considers depression to be a serious illness with tangible physiological effects such as disorganizing the brain and disrupting the functioning of the cardiovascular system. He criticizes society for romanticizing depression in the same way that tuberculosis was once romanticized; these romantic notions involve claims of artistic sensitivity or of genius arising from depression. In his 2005 book Against Depression, he argues that the socio-economic costs of depression are so large and the effects so pervasive that modern societies should aim to eradicate the disease in the same fashion as it did with smallpox.

Kramer's most notable book is Listening to Prozac (1993). This work was grounded in the observation that, treated with antidepressants, some patients reported feeling "better than well." This result led Kramer to consider the feasibility of "cosmetic psychopharmacology," the use of medication in healthy people to induce personality traits that are desired or socially rewarded. In the book, Kramer considers the consequences for medical ethics and critiques the tendency of the culture to reward particular personality styles, namely those characterized by energy and assertiveness. The book is commonly but mistakenly believed to argue for the use of the medication.

From 2005 through 2006, Kramer served as principal host of the public radio program The Infinite Mind. He reviews books frequently (Slate, Washington Post, New York Times Book Review) and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Bibliography

Books

• Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind (2006)
• Against Depression (2005)
• Spectacular Happiness : A Novel (2001)
• Should You Leave? : A Psychiatrist Explores Intimacy and Autonomy—and the Nature of Advice (1997)
• Listening to Prozac (1993)
• Moments of Engagement: Intimate Psychotherapy in a Technological Age (1989)

Book introductions

• The Art of Loving, by Erich Fromm
• On Becoming a Person, by Carl Rogers
• Better Than Well, by Carl Elliott
• The Therapist is the Therapy by LB Fierman

Articles

• In Defense of Antidepressants, New York Times (2011)
• The Valorization of Sadness (from The Hastings Center Report) (2000)

Short Fiction

• "After Alice Left" TriQuarterly #135/136 (2010)
• "The Name of the Helper" Prick of the Spindle (2010) http://www.prickofthespindle.com/fiction/4.4/kramer/helper.htm
• "Permutations" Summerset Review (2011) http://www.summersetreview.org/11fall/permutations.html

External links

• Official site
• Through the Times With Peter Kramer, M.D., By Arline Kaplan
• Dr. Kramer's blog at Psychology Today