Blue Dreams

The Science and the Story of the Drugs that Changed Our Minds

By: Lauren Slater

Narrated by: Betsy Foldes Meiman

The explosive story of the discovery and development of psychiatric medications, as well as the science and the people behind their invention, told by a riveting writer and psychologist who shares her own experience with the highs and lows of psychiatric drugs.

Although one in five Americans now takes at least one psychotropic drug, the fact remains that nearly seventy years after doctors first began prescribing them, not even their creators understand exactly how or why these drugs work -- or don't work -- on what ails our brains.

Lauren Slater's revelatory account charts psychiatry's journey from its earliest drugs, Thorazine and lithium, up through Prozac and other major antidepressants of the present. Blue Dreams also chronicles experimental treatments involving Ecstasy, magic mushrooms, the most cutting-edge memory drugs, placebos, and even neural implants. In her thorough analysis of each treatment, Slater asks three fundamental questions: how was the drug born, how does it work (or fail to work), and what does it reveal about the ailments it is meant to treat?

Fearlessly weaving her own intimate experiences into comprehensive and wide-ranging research, Slater narrates a personal history of psychiatry itself. In the process, her powerful and groundbreaking exploration casts modern psychiatry's ubiquitous wonder drugs in a new light, revealing their ability to heal us or hurt us, and proving an indispensable resource not only for those with a psychotropic prescription but for anyone who hopes to understand the limits of what we know about the human brain and the possibilities for future treatments.

Critic reviews

"In her informative and detailed new book, Blue Dreams, Lauren Slater traces the meandering, mercurial history of psychiatric drug discovery...She is at her most prescient when discussing Prozac, from its initial promise to its saturation of American culture...Slater also helps to further debunk the 'chemical imbalance' myth of mental illness, citing 'the paucity of evidence' supporting the role of neurotransmitters in depression...The most moving and ultimately most compelling parts of Blue Dreams are those where Slater recounts her harrowing history of drug treatment for bipolar illness. Here she illuminates the long-term physical effects of these medications, a subject rarely addressed in the psychiatrist's office...Slater wisely points out that anyone who ingests a pill for the treatment of, say, depression or anxiety or psychosis is essentially introducing a foreign substance into the brain. And yet, she goes on to say, what would you have people with a serious mental illness do? There are surely untold numbers of those who, without the benefit of a drug for their mental illness, would be dead. Slater considers herself one of them. In details both lyrical and crushingly painful, Slater describes her lifelong struggle with what Winston Churchill called the 'black dog' of depression. There is the nightmarish daydream of a sun that burns day and night, that never sets, leaving her 'trapped in a white hysterical light.'...Blue Dreams is a raw and honest memoir, and frankly one of the few that show the truly dark side of medication--even as that medication saves lives."—Amy Ellis Nutt, Washington Post

"Striking . . . Slater, a writer and psychologist, takes a skeptical yet compassionate approach to the history of psychopharmacology, one shaped by her own experience as a patient . . . Blue Dreams is a vivid and thought-provoking synthesis."—Lidija Haas, Harper's

"Poignant and lyrical...Slater's experience makes her a convincing travel guide into the history, creation and future of psychotropics."—Maggie Jones, New York Times Book Review

"In this gonzo examination of the messy history and brave future of psychotropic drugs, writer and psychologist Slater sifts through the remedies one in five Americans relies on but knows little about--even breaking into an abandoned asylum in her quest."—Natalie Beach, O Magazine

Great synopsis of psychiatry

A good listen for anyone who's on medication. The chapters on SSRIs and placebos seems so damning to the profession that I almost want to hear a rebuttal from psychiatrists, or something. Is the monoamine hypothesis basically nonsense?

Narrator mispronunciations too distracting

This important book is worth it, but please get a new narrator, the mispronunciations are far too numerous and distracting.

Very informative book

Very informative book and I appreciate the objectivity in which it was written. I also appreciated the mixture of historical information and the author’s personal journey. That said, at times, the language was a bit too flowery for me. Still a very good book!

Very interesting and useful book

I listened the book with great interest. The history of development of psychoactive and therapeutic drugs is amazingly fascinating. Author combines historical perspective and personal struggles with mental desease with great skill. I also liked philosophical aspect of the book.

update on the state treatment for mental illness

story is told from both the personal and historical perspective. a useful reality check for those of us managing mental illness of our loved ones.