Americans are distrustful of visions of perfectibility and doctrines of ultimate salvation. These feelings are based on a skepticism about the prospect for solving basic problems such as scarcity, conflict and inequality (Mendelsohn, 1984). This distrust may extend to psychopharmaceuticals such as fluoxetine which are believed by some to improve the conditions of the individual, with the potential of improving interpersonal relations in society.

If a drug like fluoxetine might be seen to have great social potential, this may indicate a step towards an ideal society. A drug that would relieve "mental illness" would certainly make the formation or functioning of such a society easier. Everyone could become happy, productive members of society. In the middle of the 1950's, Karl Popper wrote that "no doubt, biology and psychology can solve or will soon able to solve the 'problem of transforming man.'" Popper recognized the approaching possibility of altering the human character, but went on to warn that this ability may not be ideal: "those who attempt to do this are bound to destroy the objectivity of science, and so science itself, since these are both based on free competition of thought; that is, upon freedom," (Cockburn, 1994 p 116).

In 1619, Andreae wrote of Christanopolis, a city built upon his utopian visions (Eurich, 1967). Medicine was one of the components that made this city ideal. Christanopolitan's medicine was based on "physics, chemistry, anatomy" and even "pharmacy," (Eurich, 1967).

Andreae's society provided treatment for its mentally ill citizens "for reason commands that human society should be more greatly disposed toward those who have been less kindly treated by nature," (Eurich, 1967, p. 244). The implication is that through the use of medication, humans can evolve into a more desired state. The scientists in Godfrey Sweven's Limanora had localized the physical center of every emotion. "Ethical investigators" would remedy any "evil or retrogressive passion" in the ethical laboratory. Moral offenses included "devotion to the past, superstition, stagnancy of belief," and even "faith in a moral code as the terminum of human ethics," (Abrash, 1979, p. 18). In a society in which such beliefs are offenses, those that held those beliefs may be persecuted as in the example of Soviet Russia (Block, 1984). Those in power would influence the expressed beliefs of the populace and suppress those who object to this practice. A great loss of freedom and individuality would be the result.

The prescription of Thorazine in the 1950's may have been an example of induced conformity. A tranquilizer typically used to control patients in mental hospitals may not have been appropriate for dissatisfied but highly functional people. A tranquilizer may cause a person to be adjusted to adverse conditions by complacency. The use of drugs to induce social conformity has been criticized (Breggin, 1994). The potential of one group to use medication against another has frightening possibilities. In his 1932 novel Brave New World, Huxley wrote of a populace subdued in part by drugs given by the government.

How close has reality approached these prophetic worlds? Two decades ago, aversive conditioning experiments were performed at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville and the Atascadero State Mental Hospital. Researchers used the drug Anectine, the effects of which include complete muscular paralysis, temporary respiratory arrest and a "terrible, scary experience" likened to death by those given the drug (Beauchamp, 1978). The effects of the drug were expected to become associated with certain behaviors, and would serve as a mechanism to prevent these behaviors from occurring. This experiment seems to walk right off the pages of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, where the state goes to extreme measures in an attempt to control unruly members of the populace.

The prevention of the abuse of psychopharmaceuticals by the government or other powerful organizations has been attempted. During the 1973-1974 session of the California Legislature, Assemblyman Alan Sieroty introduced legislation to control the use of organic therapies in California prisons. His Assembly Bill 2296 maintained that the protection of the integrity of thought is a fundamental right (Beauchamp, 1978). The use of psychopharmaceuticals needed to be regulated by prior judicial authorization in order to determine the capacity for informed consent before the use of such drugs by the prisoners. The procedures of obtaining the necessary informed consent would also by supervised (Beauchamp, 1978). This legislation would have provided a barrier against state behavior control, and would also prevent restrictions on the use of organic therapies from becoming too stringent. Current federal law recognizes the need for psychiatric intervention without consent when a person is suicidal or homicidal (Eisenberg, 1976).

In a political environment such as the United States, a sense of crisis is often induced by an issue such as the use of Fluoxetine. This crisis may not be caused so much by the lack of powerful means to handle the problems of the issue, but by the impossibility of agreeing on the terms of its legitimate use (Mendelsohn, 1984).