Book Review: Shhh! Don't talk about Mental Health: Why being quiet is no longer an option

Title- Shhh! Don't talk about Mental Health: Why being quiet is no longer an option.

Author- Arjun Gupta

Publisher- Notion Press

Pages- 206

Year- 2019

Genre- Psychology, Mental Illness

Rating- 4/5 stars

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "Mental Illness"? Often we associate it with "weakness" and laugh on the matters related to mental illness. Some of the people don't even believe the existence of such thing as "mental illness" But now with the advancement of the society it is important to understand what mental illness is. This book is an excellent account of everything that a reader should know about mental health. This book will teach you why it is important to talk about mental health and care for one's mental stability.

In it the authors have tried to understand the position of the marginalized, the mentally unstable people who doesnot belong to the center, who are not a part of the national discourse. Now to understand this first we have to understand Foucault's idea.French philosopher and critic Michel Foucault argued that some of the population is classified as sick, criminal, mad so that they could be placed under survillence and observed by particular kind of authorities. The survillence was coded as a discourse, a system of knowledge. For instance, the physician used the discourse of sickness and health in order to prescribe a particular kind of lifestyle. The people who doesnot fit into these discourse lives at the periphery, or you can say they are the marginalized people.Thorugh this book you will be able to understand their position in the society in a better way.

One thing I would like you to keep in mind while reading this book is that it is not a self-help book, It is a result of extensive research but I believe if you read it slowly and try to understand it line by line, you will be able to understand most of the book. It is important for everyone to understand what is mental health and this book is perfect for beginners to understand the issue.

The book is compact and well-written with examples taken from the 18th century to modern bollywood films.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Happy Reading