The bard pays homage to his two muses: his wife and his football club
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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
RADICAL: Greta Thunberg urges MEPs to show climate leadership, March 2020. In 2021 she likened her autism to a "superpower", crediting her success to her special interests, or areas of highly focussed attention.
[European Parliament/CC]
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by an incoherent show that fails to question stereotypical assumptions about the Soviet Union
JOHN McINALLY welcomes a rigorous class analysis of the history and exploitation of sectarianism by the Scottish ruling elite
WILL STONE, JAMES WALSH and MARIA DUARTE review Souleymane’s Story, Sunlight, Good Fortune, and After The Hunt
ALEX HALL recommends an exhaustive investigation of the means by which the Starmer faction assassinated the left
DAVID MORGAN recommends a refreshingly inspiring novel that features encounters with some tremendous women
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.
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