ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the linkages between the reframing of the self, the emergence of these conditions, and the development of these drugs, the marketing of these brands and the strategies of the pharmaceutical companies. The new neurochemical self is flexible and can be reconfigured in a way that blurs the boundaries between cure, normalisation, and the enhancement of capacities. The definitive English language article on neurological complications of the antipsychotics was published in 1961, but there was continuing scepticism from many psychiatrists about the reality of this problem and its relation to drugs. Antidepressant medications work by increasing the availability of neurotransmitters or by changing the sensitivity of the receptors for these chemical messengers. Disease, drug and treatment thus each support one another though an account at the level of molecular neuroscience. The best selling drugs these days are not those that treat acute illnesses, but those that are prescribed chronically.
