What Mental Illness Really Is… (and what it isn’t)

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

'A must-read... Fascinating' JO BRAND

We need to rethink the conversation around mental health - psychologist Lucy Foulkes explores how and why.

How do mental health problems arise?
How do we distinguish between the 'normal' challenges of modern life and actual illness?
Is society really experiencing a new mental health crisis?

In this urgently needed book, psychologist Lucy Foulkes investigates what we know about mental illness - and shines a light on what we don't. It offers a profound new approach to how we think, talk and help when it comes to mental health.

(Previously published in 2021 under the title Losing Our Minds.)

'Captivating...engaging and lucid' Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

'Clear-headed, compassionate and, ultimately, optimistic' Mark Haddon

'Thorough, wise...much needed' Mark Rice-Oxley

© Lucy Foulkes 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • This wonderful book offers an amazingly readable and cutting-edge scientific account of mental illness

    Matthew Broome, Professor of Psychiatry and Youth Mental Health

  • Beautifully written and compassionate… This book is needed urgently so that we can examine fears of a tsunami of mental health problems… Anyone touched by such problems will find much helpful practical advice

    Uta Frith, Professor Emeritus of Cognitive Development

  • A guide to the start of the art in the science of mental illness…lucidly written and builds its case with a winning combination of care and concision… This impressive book is a great starting point for well-informed conversations on the issue

    Professor Thomas Dixon, History of Emotions blog

  • 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

  • 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

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