No Such Thing as Normal

We are diagnosed and treated for mental disorders more than ever, despite increasing evidence that environmental factors play a far greater role than biological ones. Dr Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when psychiatry rests on the belief that mental distress is explained by brain structures, chemical imbalances and genetics?

Treatments from lobotomies to electroconvulsive therapy to prescription drugs have been touted as cures for ‘disorder’. And somewhere along the way, the pharmaceutical industry has leapfrogged its patients, making millions designing drugs to treat disorders, then billions dreaming up disorders that require drugs.

Laying out the steps for a mental health system that helps rather than harms, Marieke Bigg asks: how can we heal when faced with an industry that banks on keeping us sick?

Marieke Bigg holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge. Her work focused on the role of biological models and biologists in public deliberations on biotechnology and reproductive medicine. She is a trainee psychotherapist and a peer support coordinator at the mental health charity, Mind.