{"product_id":"bipolar-expeditions-mania-and-depression-in-american-culture-9780691004235","title":"Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture","description":"\u003cp\u003eManic behavior holds an undeniable fascination in American culture today. It fuels the plots of best-selling novels and the imagery of MTV videos  is acknowledged as the driving force for successful entrepreneurs like Ted Turner  and is celebrated as the source of the creativity of artists like Vincent Van Gogh and movie stars like Robin Williams. Bipolar Expeditions seeks to understand manias appeal and how it weighs on the lives of Americans diagnosed with manic depression.  Anthropologist Emily Martin guides us into the fascinating and sometimes disturbing worlds of mental-health support groups  mood charts  psychiatric rounds  the pharmaceutical industry  and psychotropic drugs. Charting how these worlds intersect with the wider popular culture  she reveals how people living under the description of bipolar disorder are often denied the status of being fully human  even while contemporary America exhibits a powerful affinity for manic behavior. Mania  Martin shows  has come to be regarded as a distant frontier that invites exploration because it seems to offer fame and profits to pioneers  while depression is imagined as something that should be eliminated altogether with the help of drugs.  Bipolar Expeditions argues that mania and depression have a cultural life outside the confines of diagnosis  that the experiences of people living with bipolar disorder belong fully to the human condition  and that even the most so-called rational everyday practices are intertwined with irrational ones. Martins own experience with bipolar disorder informs her analysis and lends a personal perspective to this complex story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45792437764149,"sku":"ByrdShop_0691004234","price":66.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780691004235.jpg?v=1784749448","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/bipolar-expeditions-mania-and-depression-in-american-culture-9780691004235","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}