Subscribe to the Academy of Ideas Substack for more information on the next Battle and future events: https://clairefox.substack.com/subscribe BATTLE BOOK CLUB: NO MORE NORMAL - MENTAL HEALTH IN AN AGE OF OVER-DIAGNOSIS https://www.battleofideas.org.uk/session/no-more-normal-mental-health-in-an-age-of-over-diagnosis/ At what point does a low mood tip over into depression? When does a distressing experience qualify as trauma? When does a cluster of symptoms indicate an underlying condition? Are we really less psychologically healthy than previous generations? These are the questions asked by consultant neuropsychiatrist Dr Alastair Santhouse in his new book, No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age of Over-Diagnosis, and will be the focus of a discussion he will lead. As the conversation around mental health has moved from the consulting room to the public arena, so the concept of normal is shifting. Today, we are seeing an unprecedented rise in diagnosable conditions, in waiting lists, in diagnoses, and in medication. The consequences of the new climate of diagnosis are immense. Overstretched mental-health services are not just a question of resources but rather a consequence of what some argue is a recent cultural trend: the problematic medicalisation of more and more aspects of the human condition. Ever-greater numbers of people are being encouraged – often by government-backed policies – to view normal, if adverse or perhaps painful, life events through the prism of mental illness. As a consequence, a greater number of people now demand expert pharmacological or therapeutic intervention. The problems of worklessness and escalating sick leave, which the government are rightly tackling, seem dominated by those who have removed themselves from productive work because of mental health-related problems. What’s more, over recent decades, this huge increase in classification in the psychological realm has moved the job of diagnosis far beyond the field of psychiatry. A veritable industry of counsellors, therapists and psychotherapeutic practitioners now label an ever-expanding set of behaviours as mental ill-health. Perhaps inevitably, as the number of labelled conditions has grown, those reporting that they suffer from such problems has risen exponentially as well. Some worry that one unintended consequence of this pathologising of ever more aspects of life is that the system is becoming overwhelmed by inappropriate referrals and arguably over diagnosed conditions. Do we risk reducing the time and resources available to those who desperately need professional help? What is to be done? Dr Santhouse proposes one solution: that we pull back from this diagnostic expansion, focus on the effective treatment of a core group of severe mental-health problems, and de-medicalise a vast range of other normal human experiences. But others worry this will neglect many who are so distressed and depressed that they feel they are in need a diagnosis and treatment, regardless of objective clinical factors? Speakers Dr Ken McLaughlin former social worker; academic; author, Surviving Identity: Vulnerability and the psychology of recognition and Stigma, and its discontents Stella O'Malley psychotherapist; director, Genspect; author, What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You Alastair Santhouse consultant neuropsychiatrist; author, No More Normal: Mental Health in an Age Over-Diagnosis Chair Kevin Rooney religion, philosophy and ethics teacher; editor, irishborderpoll.com; convenor, AoI Education Forum; co-author, The Blood Stained Poppy