Age of Diagnosis : How Our Obsession With Medical Labels Is Making US Sicker

O'Sullivan, Suzanne, Dr.

ISBN 10: 0593852915 / ISBN 13: 9780593852910

Published by Thesis, 2025

About this Item

Unread book in perfect condition.

Seller Inventory # 47839832

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Age of Diagnosis : How Our Obsession With Medical Labels Is Making US Sicker
• Publisher: Thesis
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593852915
• ISBN 13: 9780593852910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

From a neurologist and the award-winning author of The Sleeping Beauties, a meticulous and compassionate exploration of how our culture of medical diagnosis can harm, rather than help, patients.

We live in an age of diagnosis. Conditions like ADHD and autism are on the rapid rise, while new categories like long Covid are being created. Medical terms are increasingly used to describe ordinary human experiences, and the advance of sophisticated genetic sequencing techniques means that even the healthiest of us may soon be screened for potential abnormalities. More people are labeled "sick" than ever before—but are these diagnoses improving their lives?

With scientific authority and compassionate storytelling, neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan argues that our obsession with diagnosis is harming more than helping. It is natural when we are suffering to want a clear label, understanding, and, of course, treatment. But our current approach to diagnosis too often pathologizes difference, increases our anxiety, and changes our experience of our bodies for the worse.

Through the moving stories of real people, O'Sullivan compares the impact of a medical label to the pain of not knowing. She explains the way the boundaries of a diagnosis can blur over time. Most importantly, she calls for us to find new and better vocabularies for suffering and to find ways to support people without medicalizing them.

About the Author

Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan has been a consultant neurologist and clinical neurophysiologist since 2004, specializing in complex epilepsy and functional neurological disorders. She is the author of three books: It’s All in Your Head, which won the 2016 Wellcome Book Prize and the Royal Society of Biology general book prize, Brainstorm, and The Sleeping Beauties, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society book prize and for the Next Big Ideas club.