Searching for Normal

A brilliant book. 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

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

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

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

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, BACP-registered therapist and author

[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