Mental Illness
The Parable of the Stupid Samaritan
I tried to help Andrea, a disorientated stranger at a hectic London station, to the irritation of the state’s representatives
My Memory is Failing — Will I Get Alzheimer’s?
In diagnosing dementias, the brain scan is less important than personality traits. But my patients never believe this
You’re So Thin — So How Can You Feel Fat?
Science has struggled to explain anorexia nervosa in its entirety. A new model is targeting the insula, a central hub of brain networks
Underrated: Alexandra Shulman
The editor of British Vogue has bravely — and rightly — shamed designers who insist their clothes be modelled by impossibly thin young girls
An End to the Myth of the Tortured Soul
What was Van Gogh really like? A new exhibition brings us closer to the truth
Creeping Insanity
Cockroach by Rawi Hage
Doctor in the House
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
Oliver James
The author of Affluenza and the darling of the TV psychiatrist’s couch is underchallenged
Sick Note
Dignitas’ new scheme is based on the misconception that mental illness is a terminal illness
A Strange Rush for the Exit
In a world where life appears to be getting better, why are we in the grip of a suicide epidemic?
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal