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Psychiatrist PETER D

Fresh Air

Published October 14, 1993 at 11:00 PM CDT

Psychiatrist PETER D. KRAMER. Kramer has written "Listening to Prozac" (Viking Books): an examination of the larger issues behind drugs that reshape temperament. Prozac is the most widely prescribed antidepressant today, with some four and a half million users since its introduction in 1987. Kramer raises serious questions about this "miracle mood enhancer": are we headed into an age of cosmetic pharmacology? If a pill is not used to alter an illness, but rather personality, what then is "the self"? And what are the social ramifications for women, in light of the Valium and Lithium use of the 1960's? (REBROADCAST. Originally aired 6