It's All in Your Head

Stories from the Frontline of Psychosomatic Illness

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It's All in Your Head

By: Suzanne O'Sullivan

Narrated by: Maggie Ollerenshaw

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About this listen

Winner of the Wellcome Book Prize 2016

Pauline first became ill when she was 15. What seemed to be a urinary infection became joint pain, then life-threatening appendicitis. After a routine operation, Pauline lost all the strength in her legs. Shortly afterwards, convulsions started. But Pauline's tests are normal: her symptoms seem to have no physical cause whatsoever.

This may be an extreme case, but Pauline is not alone. As many as a third of people visiting their GPs have symptoms that are medically unexplained. In most an emotional root is suspected, which is often the last thing a patient wants to hear and a doctor to say.

We accept our hearts can flutter with excitement and our brows can sweat with nerves, but on this journey into the very real world of psychosomatic illness, Suzanne O'Sullivan finds the secrets we are all capable of keeping from ourselves.

Suzanne O'SullivanMaggie OllerenshawAudible Studios

Psychology

Psychology & Mental Health

Health

Inspiring

Mental Health

Heartfelt

Medicine

Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Health Inspiring Mental Health Heartfelt Medicine

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Critic reviews

"Doctors' tales of their patients' weirder afflictions have been popular since Oliver Sacks.... Few of them, however, are as bizarre or unsettling, as those described in this extraordinary and extraordinarily compassionate book." (James McConnachie, Sunday Times)
"A fascinating glimpse into the human condition...a forceful call for society to be more open about such suffering." (Ian Birrell, Daily Mail)

Most relevant

What did you like best about this story?

Perhaps because of the nature of the patients involved it was important to get to know them in a little depth, personally, which gives you more of an investment in the outcome of their treatment when compared to some other books which take a drier and less personal look at their case studies.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

None of the patients had simple lives, each having to endure their illnesses to different extents but refreshing throughout was the care that the author had for those she treated, even extending to one patient who did not even need her help at all. It was good to see her response to this was not one of disdain or cruelty, as is often seen by the public. She clearly thrives in this work.

Any additional comments?

The only issue, which the author herself acknowledges, is that in her line of work she doesn't necessarily see the cases all the way through to the end, given how difficult it can be to convince her patients of the nature of their problems. Many walk away, others are moved on to other people. It would be nice to know what happened to every patient, though for obvious reasons, that isn't possible.