Prozac Nation (book)

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This article is about the book. For the film, see Prozac Nation (film).

Prozac Nation (sub-titled Young and Depressed in America : A Memoir), an autobiography published in 1994 and written by Elizabeth Wurtzel, describes the author's experiences with clinical depression. Prozac Nation is also the name of an independent film based on the book. The title is a reference to Prozac, the name of an antidepressant prescribed for Wurtzel.

[edit] Book

In the book (1997 edition: ISBN 1-57322-512-6), Wurtzel describes her experience with the depths of a depressive illness, her own character failings and how she managed to live through particularly difficult periods while completing college and working as a writer. Her honesty in relating episodes which often do not reflect well on her is a striking aspect of the book. This has polarised many readers and critics, with some denouncing Wurtzel as self-obsessed, indulgent and unlikeable, while others praising her for producing a frank and accessible account of an often stigmatised illness.

As an autobiographical account of experiences with mental illness it can be seen as the successor to books such as Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar and Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. Prozac Nation is also similar to Susanna Kaysen's Girl, Interrupted, a book published in the same year: both were written by articulate young women describing their experiences of mental illness.

Some reviews, including one published in The Guardian ten years after its initial publication, suggest that comparisons to The Bell Jar are superficial:

"The endless comparisons to The Bell Jar are, it has to be said, rather misplaced. Whereas Plath wrote with a kind of dispassionate economy, beautifully reflecting the numbness that came with her condition, Wurtzel's voice is splenetic, capturing the almost sociopathic side of depression that underpins the book's more unpalatable moments."