Manufacturing Discontent

Ever wonder how emotions or charecterisics about ouselves suddenly became diseases? (Such as attentiveness, or lack thereof)? Most likely such a medicalization our charecteristics benefited some drug company that happened to have stumbled upon the cure. An extreme case in point is Forest Laboratories, whose lagging sales of its Anti-Depressant drug Lexapro caused it to attempt to broaden the range of diseases the drug cures to include "compulsive shopping." It didn't fly. Buy one medicalization that did was "social phobia", a curious new disorder whose orgins are chronicled here.