Early on, Karp states that his goal in writing this book is to let those who practice the healing arts "know that human beings are not inanimate receptacles for medical treatments." The sociology professor wants to do this because he believes that medical professionals rarely think about anything but a psychiatric drug's effect on biological cells, and that the same drug can have vastly different effects on different persons or on the same person at different times in his or her life. Laying bare his own lifelong struggle with depression and often having to juggle a veritable cocktail of drugs, Karp says he has often wondered whether his personality is his own or just some kicked-up by-product of the meds. Even though the answer remains elusive, at least for him, he seems to be in good company, and his story combines with the alternately plaintive and upbeat psychiatric drug experiences of 50 interviewees, all diagnosed with various mental illnesses, to put a poignant face behind the title question. Donna Chavez