Better Than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream

"Elliott's absorbing account will make readers think again about the ways that science shapes our personal identities."—American Scientist

Americans have always been the world's most anxiously enthusiastic consumers of "enhancement technologies." Prozac, Viagra, and Botox injections are only the latest manifestations of a familiar pattern: enthusiastic adoption, public hand-wringing, an occasional congressional hearing, and calls for self-reliance.

In a brilliant diagnosis of our reactions to...