Böcker av Damon Tweedy

From the New York Times bestselling author of Black Man in a White Coat comes a powerful and urgent defense of psychiatry and mental health careAs much as we all might wish that mental health problems, with their elusive causes and nebulous presentations, simply did not exist, millions of people suffer, sometimes to an extreme extent. The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that about twenty percent of U.S. adults live with a mental illness each year. And yet the practice of psychiatry, and psychiatrists themselves, are often derided, challenged, and their work seen as nothing but pill-pushing.Meanwhile, those who suffer from mental health problems face a worse reality. Because there is often no tangible sign that reliably distinguishes a person suffering a mental disorder from someone who is not, it is easy to discount that person's subjective experience. The teenager who stays in bed all day is lazy; the woman who cries for hours at a time is weak; the man who consumes too much alcohol or drugs is selfish. What's worse, these castigations don't just arise from strangers, but often from those closest to us: parents, children, spouses, and yes, even doctors. Bestselling author, professor of psychiatry, and practicing physician Damon Tweedy guides us through his days working in various settings-from country clinics, to emergency rooms, to VA hospitals as he meets people from all walks of life who are often grappling with both physical and mental illnesses. In forceful, eloquent prose, Tweedy argues for a more comprehensive and integrated system of mental health care in America, one where doctors of all stripes will have a deeper understanding and be taught more empathy for sufferers, and the continued stigma of "crazy" in the public eye, will be replaced by a more compassionate and educated understanding of how mental and physical symptoms can interact and contribute to a person's health.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S TOP TEN NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEARA LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK SELECTION . A BOOKLIST EDITORS' CHOICE BOOK SELECTIONOne doctor's passionate and profound memoir of his experience grappling with race, bias, and the unique health problems of black AmericansWhen Damon Tweedy begins medical school, he envisions a bright future where his segregated, working-class background will become largely irrelevant. Instead, he finds that he has joined a new world where race is front and center. The recipient of a scholarship designed to increase black student enrollment, Tweedy soon meets a professor who bluntly questions whether he belongs in medical school, a moment that crystallizes the challenges he will face throughout his career. Making matters worse, in lecture after lecture the common refrain for numerous diseases resounds, "More common in blacks than in whites."Black Man in a White Coat examines the complex ways in which both black doctors and patients must navigate the difficult and often contradictory terrain of race and medicine. As Tweedy transforms from student to practicing physician, he discovers how often race influences his encounters with patients. Through their stories, he illustrates the complex social, cultural, and economic factors at the root of many health problems in the black community. These issues take on greater meaning when Tweedy is himself diagnosed with a chronic disease far more common among black people. In this powerful, moving, and deeply empathic book, Tweedy explores the challenges confronting black doctors, and the disproportionate health burdens faced by black patients, ultimately seeking a way forward to better treatment and more compassionate care.