Peter D. Kramer

Peter D. Kramer (born October 22, 1948), is an American psychiatrist and faculty member of Brown Medical School specializing in the area of clinical depression. Kramer considers depression to be a serious disease with tangible physiological effects such as disorganizing the brain and disrupting the functioning of the cardiovascular system. In his work he has criticized society for romanticizing depression in the same way that tuberculosis was once romanticized; these romantic notions involve claims of artistic sensitivity or of genius arising from depression.

Peter D. Kramer
BornOctober 22, 1948
New York City, U.S.
Alma materHarvard University
OccupationPsychiatrist
EmployerBrown Medical School

Early life

Peter D. Kramer was born on October 22, 1948 in New York City to Jewish Holocaust survivors.[1] He graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1970 and an MD in 1976.[2] He was also a Marshall Scholar at University College, London (UCL) in 1970-1972.

Career

Kramer is a faculty member of Brown Medical School, where he specializes in clinical depression. He is also the author of several books. In his 2005 book Against Depression, he argues that the socio-economic costs of depression are so large and the effects so pervasive that modern societies should aim to eradicate the disease in the same fashion as it did with smallpox.

Kramer's most notable book is Listening to Prozac (1993). This work was grounded in the observation that, treated with antidepressants, some patients reported feeling "better than well." This result led Kramer to consider the feasibility of "cosmetic psychopharmacology," the use of medication in healthy people to induce personality traits that are desired or socially rewarded. In the book, Kramer considers the consequences for medical ethics and critiques the tendency of the culture to reward particular personality styles, namely those characterized by energy and assertiveness.

From 2005 through 2006, Kramer served as principal host of the public radio program The Infinite Mind. He has frequently reviewed books (in Slate, Washington Post, New York Times Book Review) and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.

Bibliography

Books
  • Ordinarily Well: The Case for Antidepressants (2016)
  • Freud: Inventor of the Modern Mind (2006)
  • Against Depression (2005)
  • Spectacular Happiness : A Novel (2001)
  • Should You Leave? : A Psychiatrist Explores Intimacy and Autonomy—and the Nature of Advice (1997)
  • Listening to Prozac (1993)
  • Moments of Engagement: Intimate Psychotherapy in a Technological Age (1989)

Book introductions

Articles
  • "Why Doctors Need Stories", New York Times (2014)
  • "In Defense of Antidepressants", New York Times (2011)
  • "The Valorization of Sadness" (from The Hastings Center Report) (2000)

Short Fiction

References
  1. http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/film-and-book-reviews/through-times-peter-kramer-md "All my relatives were German Jews. Those few who had managed to get out--they included my parents, my grandparents and one great-grandmother--had done so at the last possible moment. Most other family members were killed or died of medical neglect."
  2. "Peter D. Kramer Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior". Brown University. Retrieved February 23, 2017.
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