The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Sebastian, Four Mothers, Restless, and The Most Precious of Cargoes
Latest editorial
Against the medicalisation of mental health
JOHN GREEN explores the argument that psychiatry needs to move away from the idea of just seeing and treating the individual
normal
SYLVIA HIKINS applauds a polemic against “cleanfluencers” and considers radical alternatives to current inequalities of housework
RUTH AYLETT admires the blunt honesty with which a woman’s experience is recorded, but detects the unexamined privilege that underlies it
IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
High quality pulp, rollicking online murders, Abnorman Britain, and high skates drama: reviews of The Get Off, Everyone In The Group Chat Dies, Pagans and First To Fall
DENNIS BROE notes what happens to content when the streaming giants incorporate AI and deregulation into their economic models
New releases from The Tenementals, Nik Bartsch’s Ronin, and Kuunatic
Searching for Normal: A New Approach to Understanding Mental Health, Distress and Neurodiversity
Dr Sami Timimi, Fern Press, £25
WITH mental health, particularly of young people in our society, a hot topic of conversation, Dr Sami Timimi’s new book offers a refreshing and radical view as a counterpoint to the mainstream narrative and the increasing medicalisation of mental health.
Challenging mainstream shibboleths, especially scientific ones, can be a Quixotic enterprise but Timimi takes up the knight’s lance with alacrity. He has been an NHS consultant in child and adolescent psychiatry since 1997 and has a wealth of hands-on experience. This is his sixth book and he has also made numerous contributions to medical journals. His book is written in a clear and accessible way for a general readership.
While he doesn’t proclaim himself as such, his approach to psychiatry is one of a Marxist bent, in that he looks at the subject holistically and recognises the dialectical interplay of factors, particularly social, class and cultural, on everyone’s mental health.
More from this author
While the group known as the Colourists certainly reinvigorated Scottish painting, a new show is a welcome chance to reassess them, writes ANGUS REID
ANGUS REID recommends an exquisite drama about the disturbing impact of the one child policy in contemporary China
The phrase “cruel to be kind” comes from Hamlet, but Shakespeare’s Prince didn’t go in for kidnap, explosive punches, and cigarette deprivation. Tam is different.
ANGUS REID deconstructs a popular contemporary novel aimed at a ‘queer’ young adult readership