by David Shanies

About the author: David Shanies writes for Miscellany News, a newspaper published by Vassar College in New York.

“One cubic centimeter of Soma cures ten gloomy,” or so people were told in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In Huxley’s world, a disturbing commentary on the dehumanization of society leading to widespread mind control, everyone was taught that the answer to their problems was simple: With chemical stabilization, no one ever needs to be unhappy again.

Unfortunately, this manner of thinking is one of the many ways in which Huxley’s vision of our society’s future rings alarmingly true. As psychopharmacological drugs continue to gain expansive use and increased acceptance in America, it is becoming clear that the “magic pill&rdquo...