Crazy Pills

Really interesting article on the History of Psychiatry in the United States that separates the phases that the Industry has gone through into 3 distinct epochs. The industry is barely 100 years old. (from the Wilson Quarterly: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=wq.essay&essay_id=400008.)

Psychiatry is an industry that deals with extremes of human behavior so I suppose one shouldn't be shocked at the extreme behaviors that are used to treat it. Thorazine took over from the Shock Treatments and Lobotomies of the mid 20th century. It was invented in France and accepted for use on Dec. 11, 1950. (Sun-Chiron-Venus in Sagittarius squaring the Pisces NN-Virgo SN). Created originally for some other completely unrelated ill (I think it was considered an antihistimine) the Doctors began to notice that it made a person not care about a damn thing. How else can you deal with that entire huge generation who suffered from Pluto in Cancer? Thorazine, baby. No more caring. This is also the generation that created all the Divorces. Thorazine accepted by the FDA in 1957. Pluto at the very last degrees of Leo just chompin at the bit to get into Virgo where it could take over the World with Magic Bullets.

Next biggee was Valium. Valium created by a Polish Doctor, Dr. Leo Sternbach in 1956 as Librium. He manipulated it into a pill that was 2 1/2 times stronger and named it Valium. Approved by the U.S. in May, 1963. Between 1969 and 1982 Valium became the top selling pharmaceutical. Sales peaked in 1978. Pluto was just about finished with its passage through Libra so the Pluto in Cancer people were just about all finished up with their Pluto squares. Pluto passed into Scorpio in 1983-84 just as Valium sales sank.

The Rolling Stones wrote a song about Valium called "Mother's Little Helper." It's really fun to look at the astrology, especially the Cancer Mommy influence, in mind.

The Frankenstein:

Dr. Leo Sternbach
b. May 7, 1908 Opatija, Croatia

Sun 17 Taurus; Moon Cancer or Leo; NN 7 Cancer

Sternbach's Sun is both conjunct his Mercury in Taurus and parallel it. These two trine his Uranus 17 Capricorn to the degree as well. Very sharp mind. Sun-Mercury-Pluto are all in parallel here.

The rest of his chart shows how he used his brilliance. North Node in Cancer conjunct Neptune (drugs) in Cancer on one side. And conjunct a wide conjunction/stellium over the Gemini-Cancer Cusp of Venus in Cancer-Pluto & Mars in Gemini. The Dude handled all the compulsions and boredoms of the most Anxious (Gemini) Mommies (Cancer) in the World.

When Valium hit the market in May, 1963 Sternbach was close to a Nodal Return in Cancer. I can only find that the Drug came out in May, which means that he would have been having his Solar Return at this time. Best stuff is his progressions. 5 planets and the North Node all bundled up in the sign of Cancer. Both his progressed Mercury and prog. Venus were Retrograde which seems to indicate that his effect on all things Cancerian might come with complications. His progressed Moon may have been going through its return in Cancer as well (can't tell for sure what sign as don't have birth time).

Most interesting, of course, is that Sternbach's progressed Sun was conjunct his Neptune-NN conjunction in Cancer. And transiting Neptune was in Scorpio opposite his natal Sun-Mercury. This is one of the few people I've studied who benefitted from a double, let alone single, whammy transit aspect of Sun to Neptune. Most of us just wake up 3 years later and wonder what just happened. Neptune's tendency to bring on addiction is really too much. The Good Doc literally projected those nasty transits onto an entire generation of parents (Nodal Axis: Cancer-Capricorn). This generation was already competing with the Pluto in Gemini's who still hadn't recovered from prohibition, like they really needed to chase the pills down with their cocktails.

As far as the transits go, Uranus had just moved into Virgo (anxiety) and was in wide conjunction with Pluto in Virgo (anxiety). Saturn (depression) was still not quite in Pisces (drugs, addiction, escapism) yet, but ... the Show will soon begin.

The Rolling Stones wrote their song about the drug in 1965 and recorded it in the studio between Dec. 5-8, 1965, London (?). This is right as the Saturn-Chiron in Pisces opposite Uranus-Pluto in Virgo opposition was within degrees of being exact. On Dec. 5, the Sun was in Sagittarius, the Moon was at the beginning of Taurus where it stayed during most of the recording. On Dec. 8 it passed over the North Node in Gemini and became the Full Moon. The Sun-Moon and Nodal Axes were squaring the Saturn-Chiron to Uranus-Pluto axes!

Here are the 5 different types of Psych Drugs, one would assume that there would be more. I guess most were discovered when developed to treat other problems. Somebody really needs to force the psych people to read some French novels so they can learn more about human nature. This is kind of a limiting selection.

anxiolytics, anti-anxiety
anti-depressants
stimulants, depression
anti-psychotics
mood stabilizers

History of the best sellers of the industry. http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/15-10/st_infoporn

1st put out by Bayer: Luminal, 1912 for anxiety (Pluto in Gemini)

The first Anti-depressant, Benzedrine, came onto the Market during the, yes, Great Depression in 1936.

Thorazine, an anti-psychotic, took the paddles away from the ElectroShock and InsulinShock Docs. Dec. 11, 1950, France. Marketed starting in 1957.

Valium, May 1963, Uranus moves into Virgo. Top selling med 1969-1982, peaked in 1978.

Lithium - for all the Mommy's who took too much Valium mid 1970s

1987 Prozac - Ended Talk Therapy, Pluto in Scorpio, Grand conjunction of Saturn-Uranus-Neptune in Capricorn.

1991 Zoloft - Best Selling anti-D in 2002

1997 Seroquel - Best-selling anti-P

2002 Lexapro - current Best- selling anti-D. Benefited from intense marketing probably associated with the Saturn-Pluto opposition in Gemini-Sagg.