No Such Thing As Normal

''Confronting, thought-provoking and hopeful'' SARAH GRAHAM''A rallying cry for the importance of social and systemic approaches to psychiatric distress'' EMMA BYRNE''Stimulating and timely on psychiatry''s tendency to pathologise the ''abnormal'''' DANIEL TAMMET''A shocking and powerful critique . . this is essential reading'' HELEN KINGThere is no such thing as a normal brain, yet we live in a world that treats disorder as disease. Psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress can ultimately be explained by biology: brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics. Treatments from lobotomies to electroconvulsive therapy to prescription drugs have been touted as cures for ''disorder''. And somewhere along the way, the pharmaceutical industry has leapfrogged its patients, making millions designing drugs to treat disorders, then billions dreaming up disorders that require drugs. We are now diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than biological ones. Laying out the steps for a mental health system that helps rather than harms, Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when faced with an industry that banks on keeping us sick?