Introduction
Introduction
“Mind Food”
This introductory chapter explores the prevailing attitudes in India regarding the use of psychopharmaceuticals, especially in the neologism, moner khabar, or “mind food.” The efficacy of psychopharmaceuticals, especially of antidepressants, has long been the subject of controversy. Moner khabar was coined with the intention of making psychotropic drugs acceptable to those hesitant to take them. However, the author notes that although the parallels between food and psychopharmaceuticals were strongly established in one hospital, not all psychiatrists were equally ready to simplify—or dissimulate—psychiatric models for their lay clients. Indeed, in the hundreds of consultations that were witnessed, psychiatrists' explanations of disease etiologies and drug effects were either absent or kept to a bare minimum.
Keywords: moner khabar, mind food, psychopharmaceuticals, psychiatry, psychotropic drugs, India
NYU Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.