A Manifesto for Mental Health: Why We Need a Revolution in Mental Health Care

A Manifesto for Mental Health presents a radically new and distinctive outlook that critically examines the dominant ’disease-model’ of mental health care. Incorporating the latest findings from both biological neuroscience and research into the social determinants of psychological problems, Peter Kinderman offers a contemporary, biopsychosocial, alternative. He warns that the way we care for people with mental health problems is creating a hidden human rights emergency and he proposes a new vision for the future of health organisations across the globe.
The book highlights persuasive evidence that our mental health and wellbeing depend largely on the society in which we live, on the things happen to us, and on how we learn to make sense of and respond to those events. Kinderman proposes a rejection of invalid diagnostic labels, practical help rather than medication, and a recognition that distress is usually an understandable humanresponse to life’s challenges. Offering a serious critique of establishment thinking, A Manifesto for Mental Health provides a well-crafted demonstration of how, with scientific rigour and empathy, a revolution in mental health care is not only highly desirable, it is also entirely achievable.

Peter Kinderman is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Liverpool, honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist with Mersey Care NHS Trust and Clinical Advisor for Public Health England, UK. He was 2016-2017 President of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and twice chair of the BPS Division of Clinical Psychology. His research activity and clinical work concentrate on serious and enduring mental health problems, as well as on how psychological science can assist public policy in health and social care. His previous books include A Prescription for Psychiatry: Why We Need a Whole New Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing (2014).