The Magic Bullet

Happy April! It's been a while, huh? In this episode of The Will To Believe, we return to talking about Thomas Huxley and Christian existential anxiety about gorillas.

There's something very mysterious and dramatic about an intense therapy session, like someone is letting loose something frightening sealed within. But what if, beyond this mystique, therapy and exorcism shared a historical root? And if they do, what can that tell us about the role of therapy, and of mental illness, in society?

Producing plays. Selling cigarettes. Electing presidents. Winning wars. Toppling democracies. Edward Bernays did all of these things in his long and prosperous career as the pioneer of public relations. But why? In this episode of The Will to Believe, we explore the history of PR, a field deeply rooted in psychology, but also the history of a world on the brink of madness. A world that Bernays wanted to help.

In the first episode of The Will to Believe, we learn the little known origin story of SSRIs, also known as antidepressants. How can we make sense of a drug and a disorder that seem to defy logic left and right? What does it mean about psychiatry, and about how people work?