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.