Description

This is an autonarrated audiobook version of this book

Everyday sufferingthose conditions or feelings brought on by trying circumstances that arise in everyones livesis something that humans have grappled with for millennia But the last decades have seen a drastic change in the way we approach it In the past a person going through a time of difficulty might keep a journal or see a therapist but now the psychological has been replaced by the biological instead of treating the heart soul and mind we take a pill to treat the brain

Chemically Imbalanced is a field report on how ordinary people dealing with common problems explain their suffering how theyre increasingly turning to the thin and mechanistic language of the body/brain and what these encounters might tell us Drawing on interviews with people dealing with struggles such as underperformance in school or work grief after the end of a relationship or disappointment with how their life is unfolding Joseph E Davis reveals the profound revolution in consciousness that is underway We now see suffering as an imbalance in the brain that needs to be fixed usually through chemical means This has rippled into our social and cultural conversations and it has affected how we as a society imagine ourselves and envision what constitutes a good life Davis warns that what we envision as a neurological revolution in which suffering is a mechanistic problem has troubling and entrapping consequences And he makes the case that by turning away from an interpretive meaningmaking view of ourselves we thwart our chances to enrich our souls and learn important truths about ourselves and the social conditions under which we live