The Power to Harm: Mind, Medicine, and Murder on Trial - Softcover

Cornwell, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140269967 ISBN 13: 9780140269963

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 1998

Synopsis

Examines the lawsuit brought against Prozac's manufacturer by the victims of a shooting spree

About this title

About the Author:

John Cornwell is senior research fellow at Cambridge University, where he directs the Science and Human Dimension Project.

From Library Journal:

In 1989, Joseph T. Wesbecker went on a shooting spree at his former place of employment, Standard Gravure, in Louisville, Kentucky. After killing eight people and injuring 12, he took his own life. Wesbecker, on long-term disability leave owing to work-related stress and a history of mental illness, was taking the antidepressant Prozac. The survivors of his rampage sued Eli Lilly, the manufacturer. Journalist Cornwell, a senior research fellow at Cambridge University and visiting fellow at the Neurosciences Institute at Rockefeller University, covered the trial for the London Sunday Times Magazine. Here he addresses not only the trial but also Wesbecker's personal life, the stress faced by blue-collar workers in postindustrial America, the nature of depression, and the development and marketing of Prozac. Cornwell does an excellent job of making the science of psychopharmacology understandable to the lay person and conveying the drama of the trial. He does slightly less well in his attempt to analyze the larger questions raised by the trial?the nature of mental illness, personality, and identity, and the ethics of pharmacological tampering. Transitions between chapters are a bit choppy, but the story itself is gripping. This title will appeal to true-crime readers as well as anyone concerned about the widespread prescription of mood-altering drugs.?Eris Weaver, Marin Inst. for the Prevention of Alcohol & Other Drug Problems, San Rafael, Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0140269967
• ISBN 13: 9780140269963
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336