It's All in Your Head

Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness

Suzanne O'Sullivan

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English

Vintage
15 May 2016

Psychology; Health psychology; Coping with illness

A neurologist explores the very real world of psychosomatic illness

A neurologist explores the very real world of psychosomatic illness.

Pauline first became ill when she was fifteen. What seemed to be a urinary infection became joint pain, then life-threatening appendicitis. After a routine operation Pauline lost all the strength in her legs. Shortly afterwards, convulsions started. But Pauline's tests are normal- her symptoms seem to have no physical cause whatsoever.

This may be an extreme case, but Pauline is not alone. As many as a third of people visiting their GP have symptoms that are medically unexplained. In most, an emotional root is suspected which is often the last thing a patient wants to hear and a doctor to say.

We accept our hearts can flutter with excitement and our brows can sweat with nerves, but on this journey into the very real world of psychosomatic illness, Suzanne O'Sullivan finds the secrets we are all capable of keeping from ourselves.

'A fascinating glimpse into the human condition... a forceful call for society to be more open about such suffering' Daily Mail

'Honest, fascinating and necessary' The Times

By: Suzanne O'Sullivan
Imprint: Vintage
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 197mm, Width: 127mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 236g
ISBN: 9780099597858
ISBN 10: 0099597853
Pages: 336
Publication Date: 15 May 2016
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Dr Suzanne O'Sullivan has been a consultant in neurology since 2004, first working at The Royal London Hospital and now as a consultant in clinical neurophysiology and neurology at The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, and for a specialist unit based at the Epilepsy Society. In that role she has developed an expertise in working with patients with psychogenic disorders alongside her work with those suffering with physical diseases such as epilepsy. Suzanne's book about psychosomatic illness, It's All in Your Head, was shortlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize in 2016.

Reviews for It's All in Your Head: Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness

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 -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times * A fascinating glimpse into the human condition... a forceful call for society to be more open about such suffering -- Ian Birrell * Daily Mail * An important study of psychosomatic illness, which shows it to be a serious disease of modern society: misunderstood, misdiagnosed and surrounded by fear -- Louise Carpenter * Telegraph * Remarkable Book… Offer[s] a remarkable insight into the suffering of these patients, as well as the power of the mind over the body… It should be on the reading list of every medical student. -- PD Smith * Guardian * A book to start a revolution in healthcare, to make use see what no one has seen so clearly before -- Helen Rumbelow * Times *