Releases from Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Maggie Nicols/Robert Mitchell/Alya Al Sultani, and Gordon Beck Trio and Quintet
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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]
The Bard stands with the Reformers of Peterloo, and their shared genius in teaching history with music and song
SUE TURNER is fascinated by a book that researches who the largely immigrant workforce were that built the Empire State
MARIA DUARTE and MALC McGOOKIN review Sirat, The Testament of Ann Lee, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and All You Need Is Kill
STEVE ANDREW recommends a Marxist analysis of the long chains of production that global corporations exploit
MARY CONWAY relishes the period detail but misses the drama in this unsatisfactory dramatisation of the subjugated life of George Eliot
IAN SINCLAIR welcomes a mainstream scholar to the ranks of left-wing critique of US foreign policy
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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