Book excerpt: A treatise on the psychological disorder of our times. If the post-war period was called the 'age of anxiety' and the 1980s and '90s the 'antidepressant era', we now live in bipolar times. Mood-stabilising medication is routinely prescribed to adults and children alike, with child prescriptions this decade increasing by 400% and overall diagnoses by 4000%. What could explain this explosion of bipolarity?