Book, Simply Bipolar[LS]

With simple and fluent prose, aimed at both specialists and the general public, the author of What is madness? criticizes the generalization of the diagnosis of bipolarity. If the post-war period was called the "age of anxiety", and the 1980s and 1990s the "age of antidepressants", we now live in bipolar times. Medications to stabilize mood are routinely prescribed, with prescriptions for children increasing 400% in the last decade, while global diagnoses have increased by 4,000%! What could explain this explosion of bipolarity? Is it a legitimate diagnosis or the result of marketing by big pharmaceutical companies? Darian Leader questions the rise of "bipolar" as a widespread solution to complex problems and argues that we need to return to a deeper understanding of the ups and downs of mania and depression.