The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression - Andrew Solomon
"The Noonday Demon" is Andrew Solomon's National Book Award-winning, best-selling, and transformative masterpiece on depression—"the book for a generation, elegantly written, meticulously researched, empathetic, and enlightening" (Time)—now updated with a major new chapter covering recently introduced and novel treatments, suicide and anti-depressants, pregnancy and depression, and much more.
The Noonday Demon looks at depression from a psychological, societal, and scientific standpoint. Andrew Solomon explores the intricate complexities and overwhelming misery of the condition, as well as the reasons for hope, based on his own struggles with the illness and conversations with fellow patients, doctors and scientists, policymakers and politicians, medication designers, and philosophers. He tackles the difficult task of identifying the sickness, as well as describing the huge array of available medications and therapies, as well as the impact the disease has on various demographic populations around the world and throughout history. He also delves into the challenging moral and ethical issues raised by biological explanations for mental disease. Award-winning author Solomon takes readers on a trip of unparalleled range and resonance into the most ubiquitous of family secrets, with uncommon humanity, candor, wit, and erudition. His contribution to our understanding of not only mental disease but also the human condition is simply remarkable.
Pros:
- thorough and well-researched
- various helpful perspectives
Cons:
- may be too detailed for some
