Innovations in health and medicine: diffusion and resistance in the twentieth century

pharmaceutical use are due to the relative power of the multinationals or to more fundamental "cultural differences" in attitudes to health and healing. Readers are led to believe that western society is destined for a dismal future of market-dominated culture. Healy offers no alternatives for charting a better course: his suggestions for reform would be welcome. The creation ofpsychopharmacology makes a substantial contribution to the history of medicine with its rich history of psychopharmacological developments and an intriguing analysis of the relationship between culture and medicine over the last two centuries. It is refreshing in its provocative analysis of a western culture that faithfully consumes psychopharmacological treatments as directed by the corporate media. While this book often presents advanced technical and scientific detail-which this reviewer cannot fully evaluate-Healy admirably merges biochemistry and political critiques in an accessible manner. As a trained clinical psychopharmacologist, Healy gives us a rare insider's view of the tangled web of corporate imperatives and public interests that come into play in the world of modern medicine.