Publisher's Synopsis
Psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress can ultimately be explained by biology: brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics. Treatments from lobotomies to electroconvulsive therapy to prescription drugs have been touted as cures for 'disorder'. And somewhere along the way, the pharmaceutical industry has leapfrogged its patients, making millions designing drugs to treat disorders, then billions dreaming up disorders that require drugs.
We are now diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than biological ones. Laying out the steps for a mental health system that helps rather than harms, Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when faced with an industry that banks on keeping us sick?
‘Adroitly skewers psychiatry's tendency to pathologise behaviours considered "abnormal". A stimulating and timely primer on the social model of mental health’ Daniel Tammet, author of Nine Minds
‘Psychiatry has been a lifeline for many, providing essential tools and interventions, but it is not the whole story. By highlighting alternative approaches and perspectives, this book challenges us to think more broadly about the complexities of mental health and about how we can truly support people at their most vulnerable moments’ Sarah Hughes, CEO of Mind
