I find this area interesting because of the assumption that we can affect "desire" directly, as if it's a knob to turn up or down. People talk about motivation in the same way, but I don't think that works either.
What makes this especially interesting is that the failure here seems to be not only pharmacological, but narrative.
A drug can survive weak efficacy if it attaches itself to a form of suffering people already recognize in themselves, or to a diagnosis that lends that suffering enough meaning to feel worth medicalizing. What your piece shows so well is that flibanserin never fully secured either. The effect was modest, the category remained unstable, and the story kept shifting underneath it.
That is what makes disease mongering such a useful frame here. The problem is not simply that a market was being built. It is that the medical meaning required to sustain the market never became convincing enough to live outside the campaign.
Maybe kisspeptin will do better (definitely has a better name) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2797718
A great name!
I find this area interesting because of the assumption that we can affect "desire" directly, as if it's a knob to turn up or down. People talk about motivation in the same way, but I don't think that works either.
What makes this especially interesting is that the failure here seems to be not only pharmacological, but narrative.
A drug can survive weak efficacy if it attaches itself to a form of suffering people already recognize in themselves, or to a diagnosis that lends that suffering enough meaning to feel worth medicalizing. What your piece shows so well is that flibanserin never fully secured either. The effect was modest, the category remained unstable, and the story kept shifting underneath it.
That is what makes disease mongering such a useful frame here. The problem is not simply that a market was being built. It is that the medical meaning required to sustain the market never became convincing enough to live outside the campaign.