Losing our Minds by Dr. Lucy Foulkes is an insightful & informative book. I appreciate the author's conversational writing style. Having read the book I have a better understanding of what mental illness is and isn't. The book clearly lays out where we as a society are in the journey of understanding mental illness. One take way that I found helpful is the idea that some negative emotions are a normal part of the human experience and having them doesn't necessarily mean that something is wrong. That concept seems simple but I found it to be a liberating reminder. Overall the book is well written and relevant.

Losing Our Minds: The Challenge of Defining Mental Illness by psychologist Lucy Foulkes explains why it’s so hard to define what mental illness is and how it happens. The author herself has experienced mental illness, and while this is not a major focus in the book, I thought it was great that she did bring that perspective into it.

The author explains that it’s important to understand not only what mental illness is, but also what it isn’t. Regarding the medicalization of mental illness, she advocates for making a distinction between normal, unavoidable human distress and the more severe manifestations that constitute illness. The book takes a very middle ground kind of approach, acknowledging that psychological pain exists, causes distress, and is valid, but recognizing that not all suffering constitutes a disorder.

The first chapter looks at reported rates of mental illness in the population, breaking down what those numbers mean and questioning whether or not more people are experiencing mental illness now compared to in the past. I thought the author did a good job of taking readers through her process of evaluating different statistics and making it clear that numbers can’t simply be taken at face value.

The book then looks at the normal/disorder continuum and how that fits with categorical diagnostic systems like the DSM. Attention is given to various factors that can influence the development of mental illness in the areas of biology, environment, and the various processes going on during adolescence. The author takes the approach that mental illness is complex, and it can’t be reduced down to either all one thing, whether that’s biology or environment.

There’s an interesting chapter devoted to social media, and again, the author’s approach was very balanced. She addressed both positives and negatives associated with social media use, cautioning against oversimplification, especially when there isn’t a lot of data to go on. She suggested that social media may be more likely to reflect and amplify what’s already going on for individuals rather than create brand new issues. For example, cyberbullying is a problem, but most people who are being cyberbullied are also being bullied in their in-person world.

After looking at these different factors that can influence the development of mental disorders, the book returns to the question of whether mental illness is becoming more prevalent, as seems to be a common perception. The author points out how difficult this is to determine. For example, if suicide rates are going up, how much is that influenced by changes in reporting of suicides (in 2018, the standard for reporting suicides in England and Wales shifted from beyond a reasonable doubt to a balance of probabilities) or under-treatment of depression in children and adolescents due to the FDA black box warning on antidepressant use in this population group?

In the chapter devoted to language, the author advocates for reserving some language for serious illness rather than using the language of disorder to refer to all experiences of distress. She adds that linguistic inflation can contribute to people getting the wrong advice for what they’re actually experiencing.

The book ends with two chapters focused on getting help. The first is about professional help, the different forms that may take, and the reality of how difficult it can be to actually access. The final chapter looks at ways we can help ourselves and other people in our lives. The author reiterates that experiencing distress is hard, but it’s a fundamental part of being human, and not everything is immediately fixable.

I really liked this book. There’s so much talk of black and white in popular conversations about mental health and illness, and this book fully embraces the grey areas. The author skillfully validates both illness and non-illness experiences of suffering, while at the same time establishing that treating all experiences of suffering as though they’re the same or as though they’re all disordered doesn’t serve anybody.

The book brings together a lot of different ideas about mental illness in a very balanced way, making it clear that not every idea is going to match up with every individual’s experience. The author draws on a lot of research findings, but these are presented in an accessible way, with appropriate context to help readers understand what those pieces of information actually mean.

I was impressed by the way that the author presented the complexity of mental illness in a simplified way without sacrificing that inherent complexity or getting into reductionism. Overall, I thought that the book was extremely well done, and it will make an interesting read both for people who have personal experience with mental illness and those who do not.


I received a reviewer copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Jan. 25, 2022
Dr. Lucy Foulkes is a UK-based psychologist, with a focus on adolescent mental health and development. Her novel, “Losing Our Minds” is a powerful look at how our definition of “mental illness” has changed over the years, what events and genetic material can contribute to the presentation of a mental illness, and the language and social vernacular used when discussing mental illness, and how it can be both positive and negative. As Dr. Foulkes focuses in her personal practice on young adults, they play a particularly prevalent role in her book as well, mainly focusing on the physiological and emotional effects of puberty on the brain, and the benefits (and disadvantages) of social media when it comes to adolescent identity and mental health.
Foulkes provides an engaging and interesting look at mental health, presented in a consumable way. She does not use heavy, scientific language, and she provides definitions and detail where necessary, without appearing condescending. “Minds” is broken down into chapters and sub-sections, and each one is as interesting as the next. Foulkes uses her personal experience with anxiety and depression as an introductory point (and she revisits it occasionally), but is clear to point out that individual experiences with mental illness do and will vary.
“Minds” discusses a lot of the ‘hot button’ issues regarding mental health in a way that presents both sides equally and represents them fairly. For example, Foulkes talks about social media’s negative influence on youth mental health, but also discusses the positive benefits. Similarly, she talks openly about the language we use when discussing mental health, and how it can both help and hinder those who suffer.
“Losing Our Minds” is an honest portrayal at how society sees mental health, and how it has changed over the years. Anyone with an interest in mental health (personally, academically, or both) will find “Minds” to be interesting and informative, and it will definitely leave readers with a new way to look at not only mental health, but society’s view of it, and how our own biases and behaviours may in fact be hurting those who suffer from it.

This book could have been an article. As someone with mental illness, I was interested to read how Dr. Foulkes distinguishes between disorders and normal human suffering- and why she thinks it's so important to do so. This book offered few strong arguments in support of defining cutoffs. I agree that there are challenges in defining mental illness. And maybe the way that we define them has led to more experiences being labelled as "illness." I don't understand why that is a bad thing though, or why there needs to be a whole book about it. I think the bigger issue is that some people who still need help are not reaching out for it, and this conversation started by Foulkes is not going to help.

Very detailed book on the challenges of defining mental illness and mental health concerns. As a counselor I found this book fascinating, however it does seem like a book that will have a niche audience.

This book is clearly written. The author's writing style is clear and provides a reasonable level of information for laypeople who are well informed regarding mental health jargon. However, the writing style doesn't have high appeal and is not compelling or especially enjoyable. The book does cover a useful topic--the complexity of identify and categorizing mental disorders, so it's worth buying and, for the right people, worth reading.

Losing Our Minds by Dr. Lucy Foulkes reminds us of how much the world has changed especially for our kids growing up. I have a young daughter and social media is everywhere. I worry about it affecting her and this book spells out the many ways it can help or hinder someone's mindset. Dr. Foulkes has a lot of references that one can use to research more on the topic. The last chapter goes over "Helping each other and ourselves". I appreciate this as we have to face up to the fact that social media is not going anywhere and we need to make sure we are open and honest with our youth.
Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

The author has a lot of attention to details, but it's likely a bit too much for the average reader. I do hope this can be helpful in removing the stigma associated with mental illness. This book could be a definite trigger for some readers, so it would've been useful for warnings to be included.

This book goes into the weeds of the DSM diagnostic manual and gives a very through critique. But, for me, this one was just too detailed.

I appreciate the author's attention to detail and care when writing about such a difficult topic. She really tried to make disclaimers and share important information that people gloss over. I do worry about some of the language used, but she does a good job explaining her choices. My one wish is there were trigger warnings for certain subjects before the discussions began.

I received an advance copy of, Losing Our Minds, by Dr. Lucy Foulkes. This is a very good book on mental Issue. It still has a stigma attached to it today. This book goes in depth on mental illness.