The Fit Mind

Why do developed Western nations such as the United States have the highest rates of depression in the world? To untangle this puzzle, The Fit Mind takes the reader on a confronting journey through mental health across cultures. Making many years of cross cultural research available in an easy to read form, this book will change the way you think about your emotions, the way you see yourself, and your view of popular psychology. The author shows why learning to manage emotions in culturally acceptable ways can also create unexpected risks of mental illness in populations as a whole. A disturbing but ultimately constructive challenge to Western psychology, this book may, literally, change your mind.

As Western nations such as the UK plan to spend millions on measures of happiness, Western psychology faces an increasing challenge to its understanding of how people around the globe manage emotions and protect themselves from mental illness. Decades of research across cultures suggests that the science behind popular messages about mental health suffers from fundamental flaws, preventing a better understanding of high rates of depression in the developed Western world. Psychology has a long history of wishful thinking when it comes to mental health, prescribing popular ideas ahead of the science that then fails to support them. Now, The Fit Mind exposes the potential flaws in current advice about mental health, flaws that may expose some people to an increased risk of mental illness, demonstrating after many years of debate, exactly how culture can shape mental health, in ways we never dreamed, and to our cost. Happiness may be associated with the better health of some, but it is also associated with increased depression in populations as a whole. How this situation came about, how it affects you, and what might be the next step, makes for compelling reading, and a story that is likely to stay with you for years to come.

June is a clinical psychologist with 30 years experience. She is director of Eltham Psychology Clinic in Melbourne. She combines her practical experience with research skills, and is an adjunct senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia. Her first book was Mothers Growing Up, published with Allen and Unwin.