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Top of the pile
80
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
74/100Critics
67/100Scholars
98/100Author:
Thomas Insel MD
Publisher:
Penguin Press
Date:
February 22, 2022
Thomas Insel left his position as director of the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate all that was broken in the mental health care systemâand what a better path to mental health might look like. In the United States, we have treatments that work, but our system fails at every stage to deliver care well. Even before COVID, mental illness was claiming a life every eleven minutes by suicide. Quality of care varies widely, and much of the field lacks accountability. We focus on drug therapies for symptom reduction rather than on plans for long-term recovery. Care is often unaffordable and unavailable, particularly for those who need it most and are homeless or incarcerated. Where was the justice for the millions of Americans suffering from mental illness? Who was helping their families?
What The Reviewers Say
Because Dr. Insel is such an understated writer, it is easy to miss the audacity to be found in Healing.
Rarely does a book come along that has so much potential to influence American policy and quality of life as this one does.
A profound diagnosis of the ills and promises of the United States’ mental health-care system.
The author often slights evidence suggesting that the poor results persist because some common treatments do not work or are overused rather than underused. He ignores, for example, well-regarded studies that have found that depression and ADHD are overdiagnosed and overtreated, and he oversells some treatments he supports. For readers who can live with Insel’s overly bullish view of certain remedies, however, this book offers a wealth of fresh, clear, and mercifully jargon-free facts and insights into America’s mental health care problems and possible solutions.
