In April 1960, Life magazine ran a story about new methods being used to tame a lynx at San Diego’s zoo. In one picture in the magazine, the lynx looks as ferocious as a big cat should. In the other, it appeared to be transformed and was shown sweetly smelling a flower. The writer explained that the transformation in the animal’s mood occurred after a new tranquiliser called Librium had been administered. In Empire of Pain, Patrick Radden Keefe points out that “the article mentioned, in passing—as if this were not the whole point of the story—that Librium ‘may eventually…

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