Neurobiological research constantly feeds us with new means of chasing our anxiety, appeasing our feelings of disquietness, enhancing our pleasure, and encouraging our intellectual performance. Is the brain under influence? Is it being manipulated? J. Costentin presents today s brain pharmacology; its meaning and discoveries, the realms it opens and the hope it lets in. He reviews the latest steps in the pharmalogical treatment of psychoses, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and old age.