Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone

The Western view of mental illness as a purely neurochemical problem best treated with drugs is misguided and damaging, according to this bold debut treatise from physician Kidia. He argues that mental suffering has its roots in such social and political issues as colonialism, racism, capitalism, and violence, and that Western psychiatry perpetuates these problems by merely “anesthetizing the pain of oppression” and thus upholding the status quo. Drawing on his experiences treating patients in the U.S. and Zimbabwe, he argues for a holistic approach to mental health care in which the community and a network of care providers share the load (he cites Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench program, where caring grandmothers sit on benches and listen to people’s problems), patients have the final say about their course of treatment, and the doctor-patient relationship is rooted in empathy rather than profit motives. Interweaving his proposals with an analysis of how the lingering effects of British colonialism have shaped mental health in Zimbabwe, Kidia incisively reveals how the Western mental healthcare system simplifies the complexities of emotional suffering to the detriment of patients and doctors. It’s an impassioned plea to rethink what it means to feel well. (Feb.)