It’s All in Your Head
True stories of imaginary illness
Medicine, Neurology, Mental Health
Non-Fiction
Published by Chatto & Windus
A neurologist explores the very real world of psychosomatic illness.
Up to a third of people who go to see their GP have symptoms that are medically unexplained; in many of these cases an emotional cause is suspected. And yet, when it comes to a diagnosis, ‘It’s all in your head’ is the very last thing we want to hear, and the last thing doctors want to say.
In ‘It’s All in Your Head’ consultant neurologist Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan takes us on a journey through the world of psychosomatic illness. We meet patients like Pauline, who has been ill all her adult life, Camilla, the lawyer with the perfect life – except for her unexplained seizures – Yvonne, who was blinded at work by cleaning spray, and Rachel, a once-promising dancer now stuck in the purgatory of ME.
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Reviews
“Doctors’ tales of their patients’ weirder afflictions have been popular since Oliver Sacks… Few of them, however, are as bizarre or unsettling, as those described in this extraordinary and extraordinarily compassionate book.”
“Part of the success of Suzanne O’Sullivan’s phenomenal book is that I now feel exceptionally guilty for all the times I tetchily dismissed [my grandfather’s] symptoms.”
“…medicine is still a long way from fully appreciating the ways in which the mind and body are subtly intertwined, although this sharp and intriguing book goes some way to address that.”
