五分之一的人在面对癫痫患者时会产生一种身心失调之感--向自己的家庭医生寻求帮助的人中，有25%的人都深受身心失调之苦---然而面对这一问题，我们却始终徘徊在边缘线上，即便是医生本人也不愿给出身心失调这样的诊断结果---因为他们也会害怕这样的结果所引发的愤怒与指责（这种诊断给病人带来的痛苦丝毫不亚于病症本身）。在《脑中症》一书中，作者想要帮助我们更好的认识并理解心理疾病，并与诸多的疾病患者有着深刻的共鸣之情。One in five people who present themselves to an epileptic clinic suffer from a psychosomatic disorder – and 25% of all people who go to their GP suffer from a psychological disorder – yet we skirt around the issue, even doctors don’t want to give psychosomatic disorder out as a diagnosis – they fear the anger and the accusations it creates (in the same way the sufferer does). With It’s All in Your Head the author wants to bring a greater awareness to and understanding of mental illness, and empathy for its many sufferers.
This book has hit the headlines once again having just won the ￡30,000 Wellcome Book Prize - http://www.thebookseller.com/news/o-sullivan-s-debut-wins-wellcome-book-prize-327625. This year’s ￡30,000 prize celebrates the best new books, published from 1st January 2015 to 31 December 2015, that engage with some aspect of medicine, health or illness, showcasing the breadth and depth of our encounters with medicine through exceptional works of fiction and non-fiction.
Chatto & Windus published in June 2015 (￡16.99 hardback, 336pp) and have so far sold 13,000 copies across all editions.
‘Doctors’ tales of their patients’ weirder afflictions have been popular since Oliver Sacks... Few of them, however, are as bizarre or unsettling, as those described in this extraordinary and extraordinarily compassionate book’ Sunday Times
‘An important study of psychosomatic illness, which shows it to be a serious disease of modern society: misunderstood, misdiagnosed and surrounded by fear’
Telegraph
‘Honest, fascinating and necessary’
The Times
‘A doctor’s intriguing look at the puzzling world of psychosomatic illness’
Sunday Times
Rising stars of 2015: one to watch - Guardian
An extraordinary book... an important one too - Kathryn Hughes, 5 stars, Mail on Sunday
This vital, engaging book... holds its own with recent bestsellers Do No Harm, the memoir of a neurosurgeon, and The Examined Life, by psychiatrist Stephen Grosz - Hermione Eyre, Newsweek
It’s All in Your Head sits companionably beside Stephen Grosz’s The Examined Life... it casts sympathetic light on debilitating conditions that are often medically and socially vilified - Kate Colquhoun, Sunday Express
A fascinating glimpse into the human condition... a forceful call for society to be more open about such suffering - Ian Birrell, Daily Mail
I don’t read much fiction but I made an exception for this... Stress and sadness are motors of the subconscious, the mind is writer of medical fictions - Linda Grant, Metro
Like Oliver Sacks, Sullivan, a consultant neurologist, has a rich vein of experience to share - Lucasta Miller, Independent
A revealing book on the subject [of psychosomatic illness] - Psychologies Magazine
Sharp and intriguing - Doug Johnstone, Big Issue
She tackles more detailed medical and neurological aspects of the subject in an easily understandable, organic style, adding to the narrative rather than disrupting it - 4 stars, BBC Focus
Rising stars of 2015: one to watch – Guardian
Using a series of fascinating case studies as a framework, Dr O’Sullivan skilfully weaves the historical understanding, and misunderstanding, of functional illness into a series of narratives that are moving and thought provoking. - Adam Staten, British Journal of General Practice
A sympathetic, insightful study of psychosomatic illness - Charlie Hegarty, Catholic Herald
An excellent study of psychosomatic disorders - Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday