Most Popular Books by Peter D. Kramer

The New York Times bestselling examination of the revolutionary antidepressant, with a new introduction and afterword reflecting on Prozac’s legacy and the latest medical research “Peter Kramer is an analyst of exceptional sensitivity and insight. To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.” —Joyce Carol Oates When antidepressants like Prozac first became available, Peter D. Kramer prescribed them, only to hear patients say that on medication, they felt different—less ill at ease, more like the person they had always imagined themselves to be. Referencing disciplines from cellular biology to animal ethology, Dr. Kramer worked to explain these reports. The result was Listening to Prozac, a revolutionary book that offered new perspectives on antidepressants, mood disorders, and our understanding of the self—and that became an instant national and international bestseller. In this thirtieth anniversary edition, Dr. Kramer looks back at the influence of his groundbreaking book, traces progress in the relevant sciences, follows trends in the use and public understanding of antidepressants, and assesses potential breakthroughs in the treatment of depression. The new introduction and afterword reinforce and reinvigorate a book that the New York Times called “originally insightful” and “intelligent and informative,” a window on a medicine that is “telling us new things about the chemistry of human character.”

When Peter D. Kramer wrote about his work with psychiatric patients in books like Listening to Prozac and Should You Leave?, Joyce Carol Oates said, “To read his prose on virtually any subject is to be provoked, enthralled, illuminated.” When Kramer switched to fiction, Publishers Weekly wrote, “The depth, quality, and ambition of Kramer’s prose will surprise those expecting a superficial crossover effort.” In his new novel, Death of the Great Man, Kramer uses those literary skills to introduce readers to an unforgettable character, Henry Farber, a well-meaning psychiatrist forced into hiding when the nation’s chief executive—a narcissistic autocrat in his disastrous second term—is found dead on the consulting room couch. From an isolated bungalow, Farber sets out to clear his name while offering an intimate view of a flawed populist leader. What begins as comic mystery and political satire matures into a moving journey of self-exploration and a commentary on the fate of truth-telling in an era when lying has become a norm in public life.

"A stunning and moving look at the many- layered complexities of intimacy" (Kirkus Review) by the bestselling author of Listening to Prozac How do we choose our partners? How well do we know them? How do mood states affect our assessment of them and theirs of us? What does "working on a relationship" truly entail? When should we try to improve a relationship, and when should we leave? Leading psychiatrist Peter Kramer presents an intelligent, compassionate eye on the complexities of partnerships and why intimacy is so difficult for us. With the art of a novelist and the skill of a brilliant psychiatrist, Kramer addresses advice seekers struggling with such complex questions Equally at home with Shakespeare, Emerson, and Kierkegaard as it is with Freud and Jung, Should You Leave is a literary tour de force from a uniquely insightful observer and a profoundly resonant and helpful approach to resolving dilemmas of the heart.

"Deeply felt... [Kramer''s] book is a polemic against a society that accepts depression as a fact of life." —O, The Oprah Magazine A profound look at depression by the author of The New York Times Bestseller, Listening to Prozac In his landmark bestseller Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer revolutionized the way we think about antidepressants and the culture in which they are so widely used. Now Kramer offers a frank and unflinching look at the condition those medications treat: depression. Definitively refuting our notions of "heroic melancholy," he walks readers through groundbreaking new research—studies that confirm depression''s status as a devastating disease and suggest pathways toward resilience. Thought-provoking and enlightening, Against Depression provides a bold revision of our understanding of mood disorder and promises hope to the millions who suffer from it.

In his bestselling Listening to Prozac, Peter Kramer asked how much happiness we have a right to expect, and how quickly we should demand it. In Should You Leave? he questioned whether trading up has replaced loyalty in intimate relationships. Critics have praised his intellect and writing, comparing him to Roth and Updike, and have anticipated his turn to fiction. Now Kramer has made that transition. Spectacular Happiness is a daring, controversial novel about what constitutes the good life. Chip Samuels is a community college teacher and handyman on Cape Cod, loyal to the radical values his wife, Anais, introduced him to in the sixties. A patient husband and, above all, a loving father, his world has been shattered by Anais''s decision to run off with their son in search of a more conventional life devoted to getting and spending. Spectacular Happiness opens when Chip is named as the chief suspect in a series of anarchist bombings of beachfront trophy homes. Meticulously planned, announced with fireworks, these explosions have caught the public imagination, and the irony is that Chip, now an outlaw-celebrity, is drawn into the publicity-based culture he is aiming to disrupt. His response: to assemble a memoir for his estranged son, a father''s attempt to explain his motivations before the media distorts them. Chip has splendid allies: Sukey Kuykendahl, an upper-class Realtor with weaknesses for alcohol and overbearing men; Wendy Moro, a self-effacing defense attorney thrust into the limelight; and Manny Abelman, an aging psychotherapist disenchanted with his profession. But it is Chip''s own voice that dominates the novel, concerned, searching, painfully aware of the absurd behaviors love can demand. Darkly intelligent, Spectacular Happiness will alter the way we look both at oversized beachfront mansions and at the culture that spawns them, the culture Chip calls the society of the spectacle. Provocative, compelling, stunning in its execution, this is the masterful first novel that Kramer''s nonfiction has led his readers and reviewers to expect.

Through fascinating case histories and revealing encounters with patients, Dr. Peter Kramer, author of the international bestseller Listening to Prozac, provides a compassionate, immensely eloquent view of how psychiatry really works. Dr. Kramer was recently asked to guest host The Infinite Mind, a weekly public radio show focusing on the art and science of the human mind and spirit, behavior, and mental health. Listen to the show now.

“Ambitious, persuasive, and important . . . [Kramer] doesn’t just make a case for antidepressants. He makes a case for psychiatry itself.” —Jonathan Rosen, The Atlantic Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified placebos? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks statistics and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions. Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well. A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Dr. Kramer . . . has done something very valuable: . . . his dissections of the most incendiary studies are careful, and his conclusions . . . will invite a reckoning.” —The New York Times “Offers a carefully argued and convincing case that antidepressants not only work but also are an essential tool in the treatment of depression.” —The Associated Press “Moving.” —The Washington Post

Often referred to as "the father of psychoanalysis," Sigmund Freud championed the "talking cure" and charted the human unconscious. But though Freud compared himself to Copernicus and Darwin, his history as a physician is problematic. Historians have determined that Freud often misrepresented the course and outcome of his treatments—so that the facts would match his theories. Today Freud''s legacy is in dispute, his commentators polarized into two camps: one of defenders; the other, fierce detractors. Peter D. Kramer, himself a practicing psychiatrist and a leading national authority on mental health, offers a new take on this controversial figure, one both critical and sympathetic. He recognizes that although much of Freud''s thought is now archaic, the discipline he invented has become an inescapable part of our culture, transforming the way we see ourselves. Freud was a myth-maker, a storyteller, a writer whose books will survive among the classics of our literature. The result of Kramer''s inquiry is nothing less than a new standard history of Freud by a modern master of his thought.

No hay nada de romántico en el sufrimiento de la depresión. Daña las neuronas y el corazón, altera el funcionamiento del cerebro, trastorna la perspectiva y el juicio personales, e interfiere con la vida familiar. Reúne todos los requisitos para ser combatida como «la enfermedad más devastadora conocida por la humanidad», y, sin embargo, cotidianamente la abordamos, como mucho, con cierta condescendencia. La depresión, vinculada en nuestra cultura a una larga tradición de «melancolía heroica», es a menudo entendida como una fuente de creatividad o incluso de atractiva sensualidad. Peter D. Kramer reconstruye esta idílica perspectiva y la refuta con una contundente e innovadora visión de la ciencia que estudia los trastornos anímicos, un campo en el que se han efectuado grandes avances en el pasado decenio. Autor de Escuchando al Prozac, el libro que conmocionó a millones de lectores en el mundo, Peter D. Kramer comparte su experiencia con personas enfermas en una lectura tan entretenida como estimulante. Y ofrece una excelente ayuda para que todo individuo o entorno familiar afectado pueda enfrentarse a la depresión y cambie su perspectiva de lo que es una vida plena.

In this book, the author of "Listening to prozac imagines various conflicting situations to understand why, in spite of so many personal conflicts, we still pretend to have a happy relationship. Through a narrative style, he invites us to think about this and get to our own conclusions.

Kritische inleiding op Freud (1856-1939) en de psychoanalyse in de vorm van een bespreking van zijn belangrijkste geschriften.

Beschrijving van een aantal gevallen, waarin patiënten met depressies en andere psychische problemen met succes werden behandeld met het middel Prozac.

Sigmund Freud deu impulso à "cura pela fala" e mapeou o inconsciente humano. POrém, apesar de o "pai da psicanálise" ter se comparado a Copérnico e a Darwin, a sua história como médico clínico é bastante conturbada. HIstoriadores têm averiguado que, frequentemente, ele distorcia o curso e o resultado de seus tratamentos para que os fatos casassem com suas teorias. "Documentos esquecidos vieram à luz. MOstravam que Freud havia regularmente deturpado o desenvolvimento de suas ideias e os detalhes de sua própria história de vida. A Nova compreensão do trabalho clínico de Freud era particularmente perturbadora. ELe havia alterado fatos para que se ajustassem à teoria, realizado terapias de maneira que guardavam escassa relação com seus preceitos, e declarado sucesso em terapias que tinham fracassado. ATé que ponto foram danosas essas descobertas, à luz das contribuições de Freud?", revela e questiona Peter D. KRamer nesta breve biografia. O Autor, um dos psiquiatras mais respeitados dos Estados Unidos, considera o biografado um "inspirado contador de histórias", o que teria favorecido sua consolidação como ícone ilibado da psicanálise. AO transferir a culpa do fracasso de certos tratamentos para seus pacientes, Freud teria obtido histórias ricas em nuances teóricas, mas, que na verdade, seriam formadas por factóides inventados por ele. HOje, o legado de Freud não está claro, com os comentaristas polarizados entre defensores e ferozes detratores, em uma disputa chamada pelos especialistas de Freud Wars. PEter D. KRamer, autoridade norte-americana em saúde mental, oferece em Freud um retrato inédito desta personalidade controversa, da qual é ao mesmo tempo crítico e admirador. KRamer reconhece que, apesar de grande parte do pensamento freudiano ter se tornado ultrapassado, a disciplina por ele inventada faz parte da cultura - e seus livros irão sobreviver entre os cânones da literatura ocidental. EM Freud, o autor buscou referências em dezenas de biografias para construir um retrato complexo e multifacetado do criador da psicanálise. O Resultado da investigação é um novo clássico da história de Freud, conduzido por um mestre moderno de seu pensamento.

Essai critique sur l''utilisation très répandue d''un psychotrope (le "Prozac") pour traiter les états dépressifs et le trouble obsessionnel-compulsif. C''est devenu en quelque sorte un phénomène de société. Un débat est nécessaire autour de l''utilisation excessive de ce médicament.

¿Te llevas mal con tu pareja? ¿Piensas que ya no le quieres como antes? ¿Crees que llegó el momento de tomar una decisión? ¿Vale la pena seguir adelante? ¿Has decidido que lo mejor es separarte? Seguramente, estas y otras preguntas nos las hemos hecho todos alguna vez y, sin embargo, no hemos encontrado las respuestas más adecuadas para satisfacer nuestros deseos más íntimos y reconsiderar así el vínculo en pareja y enfrentar los desafíos que eso implica. Gracias a su larga y conocida trayectoria en el campo de la psiquiatría y a su talento exquisito como novelista, en este libro Peter D. Kramer propone una vía original en el tratamiento de los problemas cotidianos que afectan a la vida en pareja. Su actitud terapéutica, basada en su experiencia personal como psicoanalista y también en la atenta lectura de algunos de los más destacados autores de la literatura como Ítalo Calvino, James Joyce, Christa Wolf, T.S Eliot y Shakespeare, se aparta de cualquier tipo de convencionalismo simplista y de la imposición de reglas comúnmente aceptadas. Para quienes se encuentran en un mar de incertidumbres, Peter D. Kramer nos proporciona el mejor de todos los consejos que un gran especialista de los asuntos del corazón puede brindarnos: no dar consejos. De esta manera, las parejas, en sus vínculos cotidianos, podrán descubrir lo que cada uno desea y, además, el modo de conseguirlo. El autor demuestra que los conflictos de pareja pueden encontrar una solución si las personas son capaces de aprender de sus errores y de asumir los problemas que se presentan.

A decade ago, with Listening to Prozac, Kramer revolutionized the way we think about antidepressants and the culture in which they are so widely used. Now, he returns with a look at the condition those medications treat. Depression, linked in our culture to a long tradition of "heroic melancholy," is often regarded as ennobling--a source of soulfulness and creativity. Tracing this belief from Aristotle to the Romantics to Picasso, and to present-day memoirs of mood disorder, Kramer suggests that the pervasiveness of the illness has distorted our sense of what it is to be human. There is nothing heroic about depression, he argues, and he presents the latest scientific findings to support the fact that depression is a disease.--Publisher description.

A depressão pode surgir sem causa aparente e, muitas vezes, pode se tornar recorrente. Ela afeta o funcionamento do cérebro e do organismo como um todo e altera a percepção que a pessoa tem de si mesma e dos outros. Ela provoca intenso sofrimento e pode prejudicar de forma desastrosa as relações sociais e familiares do paciente. Então, se os transtornos causados são tão devastadores, por que ela tem sido, desde a Antiguidade até os dias atuais, associada de forma romântica ao glamour, à criatividade artística e à nobreza de caráter? Quais são os verdadeiros valores associados à depressão? O psiquiatra Peter Kramer, fundamentado em anos de experiência clínica e nas mais avançadas pesquisas, investiga a fundo o abismo que ainda hoje afasta a ciência das crenças que temos sobre a depressão. Com aguçada perspicácia e pautado por relatos de casos, o autor esclarece os mecanismos envolvidos na doença, apresenta as técnicas e pesquisas mais recentes e contribui de forma concreta para melhorar a vida dos pacientes e de seus familiares, renovando a esperança de uma vida mais feliz.

Die meisten Menschen haben schon sich selbst, ihren Freunden oder ihrem Therapeuten die Frage gestellt, ob sie gehen oder bleiben sollen, ob ihre Ehe oder ihre Beziehung noch zu retten ist. Peter D. Kramer, Professor für klinische Psychiatrie und praktizierender Psychotherapeut, beleuchtet diese heiklen Momente in unserem Leben und weckt neues Verständnis für Vertrauen und Partnerschaft. (zit. vom Umschlag).

Comment choisissons-nous nos partenaires et jusqu''à quel point les connaissons-nous vraiment ? De quelles manières nos humeurs teintent-elles le jugement que nous portons sur eux ? Dans quels cas devrions-nous tenter de ressouder une relation ? Dans quels cas devrions-nous prendre la poudre d''escampette ? Ces questions nous amènent à reconsidérer nos normes culturelles et à mesurer la portée que peut avoir le rejet de ces normes. Le présent ouvrage nous éclaire sur la façon dont nous nous percevons dans une relation intime et sur l''influence qu''a eue sur nous un siècle de psychanalyse. Partir ou rester ? est à la fois une brillante évaluation de l''art et de la science psychiatriques, et un guide pratique pour la résolution des dilemmes du cœur.