The Trap: What Happened to Our Dreams of Freedom

Examines the rise of game theory during the Cold War and the way in which its mathematical models of human behaviour filtered into economic thought.

Develops the theme that drugs such as Prozac were being used to normalise behaviour and make humans behave more predictably, like machines. This is not presented as a conspiracy theory, but as a logical (although unpredicted) outcome of market-driven self-diagnosis by checklist based on symptoms, but not actual causes. People with standard mood fluctuations diagnose themselves as abnormal. They then present themselves at psychiatrist's offices, fulfill the diagnostic criteria without offering personal histories, and are medicated. The alleged result was that vast numbers of Western people have had their behaviour and mentation modified by SSRI drugs without any strict medical necessity.

Focuses on the concepts of positive and negative liberty introduced in the 1950s by Isaiah Berlin. Curtis briefly explains how negative liberty could be defined as freedom from coercion and positive liberty as the opportunity to strive to fulfill one's potential. Curtis then explains how many political groups who sought their vision of freedom ended up using violence to achieve it.