“I knew what depression was. I had seen it play out in soap operas, and had read about it in books. I had heard my own mother talking about depression and anxiety, and seen her swallowing pills for it. And I knew about the cure, because it had been announced by the global media just a few years ago. My teenage years coincided with the Age of Prozac—the dawn of new drugs that promised, for the first time, to be able to cure depression without crippling side effects.”

A fact Hari often returns to is that not only were antidepressants less effective than they were said to have been, but they were also heavily marketed, both by advertising campaigns and by famous and influential people such as Tipper Gore, the former US Vice President’s wife (33). Hari uses repetition to create emphasis and rhythm, beginning the first three sentences with “I.”

“I had my story. In fact, I realize now, it came in two parts. The first was about what causes depression: it’s a malfunction in the brain, caused by serotonin deficiency or some other glitch in your mental hardware. The second was about what solves depression: drugs, which repair your brain chemistry. I liked this story. It made sense to me. It guided me through life.”

Hari says that antidepressants were not just a medicine for him, but the basis for how he understood himself and his depression. He thought of his depression as a medical disorder, and didn’t consider the social and personal reasons for his depression. Hari uses short, declarative sentences, which slow down the pace and encourage readers to linger.

“First, I scoffed; [Dr. Irving Kirsch’s] claims seemed absurd, and contrary to my own direct experience in all sorts of ways. And then I became angry. He seems to be kicking away the pillars on which I had built a story about my own depression. He was threatening what I knew about myself.”

Hari has bult a sense of identity around his depression, a narrative of how depression works based on it being a medical problem that can be solved through drugs. Hari is frustrated when Kirsch challenges this narrative, subverting Hari’s sense of self.