Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Psychotherapist
Non-Fiction Author
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SAMI TIMIMI
My new book 'Searching for normal' is available to order (Click here to find out more):
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​More and more people are being diagnosed with ADHD and autism.
More and more people are being diagnosed with mental disorders.
Young people are being medicalised for behaviours that might be explained as entirely normal in other parts of the world.
Distress has been commodified over many decades by pharmaceutical companies, the media and the psychiatric establishment.
So how can we know when distress is normal and when it is something that needs to be treated?
In Searching for Normal, Dr Sami Timimi explores the political and cultural context of these phenomena and presents, instead, a deeply humane approach that looks at the person as a whole – their family context, their culture, their personal resilience – and advocates for a reframing of how we think about and treat distress.
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Canadian, Arabic, Spanish, Potuguese, Hungarian, and Slovenian/Croatian
releases are now available (click on links) or on their way.
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Praise for 'Searching for Normal'
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Searching for Normal is so good I have been quoting its insights to friends ever since I finished it . . . A terrific book, timely and wise, thoughtful and thought-provoking ― Sunday Times
I said “Hurrah!” and “Yes!” to every point Sami Timimi makes. A welcome antidote to the dangerous cult of overdiagnosis and the commodification of normal distress -- Philippa Perry
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Sami Timimi is one of the most brave and wise voices in Britain. Everyone interested in thinking in a deeper way about what’s ailing us – and what isn’t ailing us! – should read this terrific, thought-provoking book -- Johann Hari
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Searching for Normal is a really important book that compellingly dismantles the house of cards that is the medical approach to mental distress. Using a mass of research evidence, it exposes how the current mental-health system traps and disempowers people and makes us all sicker. The book also offers hope that if we reclaim our common-sense understanding of emotions and behaviour, we can help each other to develop our strengths and overcome our difficulties -- Joanna Moncrieff
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Searching for Normal is a provocative and insightful critique of how we’ve come to understand and treat mental illness. It compels us not to blame (and try to fix) our brains for mental distress, but to point the finger at inequality, poverty and a culture of excessive competition and comparison -- Matthew Smith
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Searching for Normal asks two hugely important questions: why has there been such a surge in mental-health diagnoses in the current century; and how helpful are the treatments and labels given by the medical profession to those in distress? The answers given by Sami Timimi in this radical and meticulously argued book overturn much of the received wisdom about mental health, and shine a fascinating light on the dysfunctional relationship between modern capitalism and human emotion -- William Sutcliffe​
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[Searching For Normal] offers a refreshing and radical view as a counterpoint to the mainstream narrative and the increasing medicalisation of mental health . . . provoking, questioning and revelatory ― Morning Star
WHO I AM
I worked as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist from 1997. I'm also an experienced psychotherapist, having trained in a variety of approaches. I qualified as a doctor from Dundee University in 1988 and became a Member of the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists in 1992, becoming a Fellow of the college in 2012. I have won many innovation awards and led multiple service developments including being the consultant for the child and adolescent team of the year at the 2023 annual Royal College of Psychiatrists awards. I regularly present as keynote speaker at national and international conferences. I am also regularly interviewed by press, media and podcasts. I am also an author who writes from a critical psychiatry perspective on topics relating to mental health and I've published over a hundred and fifty articles and tens of chapters on many subjects including childhood, psychotherapy, behavioural problems and cross-cultural psychiatry. I've authored 7 books including Naughty Boys: Anti-Social Behaviour, ADHD and the Role of Culture, co-edited 4 books including, with Carl Cohen, Libratory Psychiatry: Philosophy, Politics and Mental Health, and co-authored 2 others including, with Neil Gardiner and Brian McCabe, The Myth of Autism: Medicalising Men’s and Boys’ Social and Emotional Competence. My book, Insane Medicine: How the Mental Health Industry Creates Damaging Treatment Traps and How You Can Escape Them, is available in serialised form on the Mad in America website and for purchase here. My latest book, Searching for Normal A New Approach to Understanding Distress and Neurodiversity is available to order here.
CONTACT ME
