1. For much of the book, Slater calls her doctor the "Prozac Doctor," rather than by name. How does this reflect her feelings about and her experience with the medical profession? Does the doctor's attitude justify this depersonalization, or does she expect too much of him? What does she mean when she says, "The Prozac Doctor was biblical to me"?

2. Slater writes about her mother, "Nothing was ever enough, for there was no plug to stopper the hole in her soul, no pill."From the evidence in the book, do you think that Slater's mother had serious emotional problems? In what ways are Slater's symptoms a reaction against her mother's "manic intensity"and in what ways do they echo the very things she objects to about her mother? How much do Slater's own problems affect her descriptions of her mother, and how do they change in the course of the book?

3. What purpose do the sections called "Letter to My Doctor"serve in the narrative? Why do you think Slater decided to juxtapose the cold clinical facts about her illness and her hauntingly poetic reminiscences about childhood?

4. Why did Slater wait four or five days before taking her first pill, despite the fact that she was clearly upset about her obsessive-compulsive disorder? Why did her dream about the Prozac Doctor make it possible for her to begin her medication?

5. Slater questions the assumption that health is "natural"and "good."Do you think the Judeo-Christian tradition and the medical profession accept this point of view too readily? Can illness offer insights that a "healthy"person might never discover?

6. Slater writes about the eight people she pictures living inside her: "three men who taunted me, three nine-year-olds, a girl trapped in a glass cage, and a blue baby, sometimes dead, sometimes dying."Based on what you know about Slater's life, what do you think these figures represent?

7. How did Slater's job at the literacy center help with her own healing process? In what ways is her passage from an illness identity to one of health similar to the transition her immigrant students are facing?

8. Slater compares Prozac to the drugs used in primitive cultures as a means of accessing the gods. Do you think this is a valid comparison? Does Prozac make Slater more spiritually aware or does it undermine her spirituality?

9. Why does Slater switch from a first-person narrative to a third- person narrative when she describes the actual events of her childhood and the early signs of her illness?

10. How does Slater's diminished sexuality affect her sense of self? Is her ability to love more fully a fair "trade-off"for her lack of physical pleasure?

11. Slater cites literature from Eli Lilly and other researchers that claim that the success of serotonin-specific chemicals like Prozac show that "the patient's past, the story of self, is no longer relevant. We do not need to explain mental illness in the context of history. We can place it, and its cures, firmly in the context of chemicals."Does Slater's own story support this conclusion?

12. Some research suggests that Prozac actually improves one's personality rather than just eliminating symptoms of illness. Is it unethical or deceitful or even dangerous to use a drug in this way? Despite her acknowledgment that Prozac has changed her life, Slater reports that she feels both shame and guilt about her dependence on it. Do you sympathize with her feelings?