Losing Our Minds

What Mental Illness Really Is and What It Isn't

Losing Our Minds
Lucy Foulkes
RRP:
NZ$ 37.00
Our Price:
NZ$ 29.60
Paperback
h234 x 154mm - 240pg
1 Apr 2021 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9781847926395
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We need to rethink the conversation around mental health. Public awareness of mental illness has been transformed in recent years, but our understanding of what it actually is has yet to catch up. Too often, psychiatric disorders are confused with the normal stresses and challenges of human experience. A narrative has taken hold that a crisis of mental illness has been building among young people for many years - and is set to get far worse. In this profoundly sensitive and constructive book, psychologist Lucy Foulkes argues that the crisis is one of ignorance as much as illness. Have we raised a ' snowflake' generation? Or are today' s young people experiencing greater stress, enhanced by social media, than ever before? Foulkes shows that both perspectives are useful but limited. The real question in need of answering is- how should we distinguish between ' healthy' suffering and actual illness? Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the scientific and clinical literature, Foulkes explains what is known about mental illness - how it arises, why it appears mainly during adolescence, the various tools we have to cope with it - but also what remains unclear- drawing a line between normality and disorder is essential if we are to provide appropriate help to those in need, but no such line exists in nature. She presents the argument that the widespread misunderstanding of this aspect of mental illness might actually be contributing to its prevalence. Losing Our Minds provides both the clarity and the nuance that are so urgently needed.
In this captivating book, Lucy Foulkes writes exquisitely well about this complex subject, from societal and cultural norms to common misunderstandings and the most recent evidence about what causes mental illness and how to treat it. Engaging and lucid, her book illuminates a subject relevant to all of us -- Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, author of Inventing Ourselves, Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience A must-read for anyone wondering about the state of the nation' s mental health, this straightforward and fascinating book is extremely useful at a time when more and more people seem to be suffering mentally but we are still unsure how to define mental illness and what we can do about it -- Jo Brand This beautifully written and compassionate account, backed by state-of-the-art scientific evidence, delivers an important message: there is far more variation in the state of our mental health and far more complexity in the diagnosis of mental illness than we tend to believe. This book is needed urgently so that we can examine fears of a tsunami of mental health problems, especially in the light of the current pandemic. Anyone touched by such problems will find much helpful practical advice -- Uta Frith, Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Development This wonderful book offers an amazingly readable and cutting-edge scientific account of mental illness and its relation to the stresses many young adults experience as well as the language we use to talk about ourselves -- Matthew Broome, Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health Losing Our Minds communicates complex research findings on mental illness with unusual clarity and compassion, and without oversimplifying or shying away from the difficult questions. Everyone who either lives with or knows someone with mental illness should read it. In other words, everyone should read it -- Essi Viding, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology
Dr Lucy Foulkes is an academic psychologist who researches mental health and social development in adolescence. She is an honorary lecturer in psychology at UCL and lives in London. Losing Our Minds is her first book.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9781847926395
Published: 1 Apr 2021
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: The Bodley Head
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
Format: Paperback
Height: 234mm
Width: 154mm
Spine: 18mm
Weight: 298g
Pages: 240

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