Nobody's Normal ★★★★★

Nobody's Normal (Click Here To Buy)

★★★★★

Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness by Roy Richard Grinker is a non-fiction book about mental health stigma throughout history.

I checked this book out from the library and listened to the audiobook.

Grinker is an anthropologist but he comes from a family of psychiatrists. It is in this vein that Grinker became interested in the stigma around mental illness and how it is developed by culture. Grinker starts with discussing ways in which other cultures view mental illness such as the Hwabyung fire in Korea or the Mendike dead souls of the Zulu Nation. Grinker continues to show how treatment for mental illness developed in Western culture from the first DSM, which was known as Medical 203 in the military to asylums originally bring a place for the poor, the mentally ill, and criminals. The crux of the book discusses the specific stigmatization of disorders throughout history. Mental illness among soldiers in wartime is a big focus and thus the development of PTSD as a diagnosis as well as ECT shock treatment for those with severe depression. Throughout the book, Grinker sprinkles in personal family stories such as when his grandfather was a patient of Freud or his daughter’s experience with autism.

Overall, I thought this book was very informative. I appreciated Grinker’s approach of looking at mental illness through the lens of stigma and I thought his personal connection was woven in tactfully to keep the story personal and engaging.

If you liked Nobody's Normal, I also recommend Insane by Alisa Roth, No One Cares About Crazy People by Ron Powers, Shrinks by Jeffery Lieberman, and Bedlam by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg.

#happyreading

Ms.Bjork