A MIND LIKE MINE

Through profiles of 21 historical figures and contemporary celebrities who have endured challenges with mental health, Davis aims to reassure readers that mental illness is no barrier to success in life.

Tucked between entries on Ada Lovelace, Greta Thunberg, and others are “spotlights” on these mental disorders, their symptoms, and current treatments. Though the introduction notes that “people living with mental health disorders have excelled in their passions” and assures readers that “anything is possible when you put your mind to it,” that message is hard to reconcile with disturbing details (Vincent van Gogh’s suicide, John Nash’s involuntary institutionalizations) in the spare bios—most ending tragically—of historical figures. Readers learn that autism and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder might explain Michelangelo’s perfectionism and Nikola Tesla’s eccentricities. (Much of the mental health information on historical figures is largely speculative given that few of these individuals were diagnosed with mental disorders.) Accompanied by dynamic illustrations, profiles of contemporary figures read like social media success stories. The bios conflate mental health disorders requiring lifelong accommodation (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, OCD) with the mental health impacts of culturally induced racism, sexism, fatphobia, and heteronormative expectations. (David Chang’s and Greta Thunberg’s bios include both, Michelle Obama’s only the latter.) Reflecting the book’s U.K. provenance, a famous cricketer and Bollywood star are profiled; Indigenous or Latinx individuals are not. All but one of the online resources provided are health care–related websites in the U.K., and no mental health care professionals are credited.

A superficial survey enlivened with interesting historical factoids and conjectures.