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‘I thought Gavin Francis couldn’t get any better, but I was wrong. This is his best and most important book’ Bill Bryson

‘Francis combines the precision of science with a profound insight into the human condition’ GUARDIAN

‘This is a book to change lives – and save them.’ Ian Rankin

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING AND RECOVERY

Between a quarter and a fifth of young people in the UK now suffer a mental disorder. One in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. These numbers represent a huge and recent expansion in mental health labelling, but reveal nothing of the experience of those seeking help.

In The Unfragile Mind, Gavin draws on conversations with patients, colleagues, and his thirty years of practice to explore the chequered history of psychiatry, the nature of mental health and ill-health, and the problems – including mood disorders, trauma, anxiety and addiction – that he addresses daily.

The mind, he argues, is dynamic and adaptive – better addressed not with rigid labels and protocols, but with curiosity, kindness, humility and hope.

Publisher Review

Excellent – beautifully written, moving and wise. Everybody with an interest in mental health should read it — Henry Marsh, author of AND FINALLY: A NEUROSURGEON’S REFLECTIONS ON LIFE Praise for Gavin Francis: ‘Francis offers hope and a rare and precious quiet form of consolation * Observer * Heartfelt and persuasively argued * Sunday Times * Wise, gentle and quietly hopeful — Rachel Clarke, author of The Story of a Heart