The Unfragile Mind : Making Sense of Mental Health

Author: Francis, Gavin

Social & political philosophy

Published on 12 February 2026 by Profile Books Ltd (Wellcome Collection) in the United Kingdom.

Hardback | 304 pages
223 x 145 x 30 | 410g

'I thought Gavin Francis couldn't get any better, but I was wrong. This is his best and most important book' Bill Bryson'Francis combines the precision of science with a profound insight into the human condition' GUARDIAN'This is a book to change lives - and save them.' Ian RankinFROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ADVENTURES IN HUMAN BEING AND RECOVERY Between a quarter and a fifth of young people in the UK now suffer a mental disorder. One in four adults are prescribed psychiatric medication. These numbers represent a huge and recent expansion in mental health labelling, but reveal nothing of the experience of those seeking help.

In The Unfragile Mind, Gavin draws on conversations with patients, colleagues, and his thirty years of practice to explore the chequered history of psychiatry, the nature of mental health and ill-health, and the problems - including mood disorders, trauma, anxiety and addiction - that he addresses daily.

The mind, he argues, is dynamic and adaptive - better addressed not with rigid labels and protocols, but with curiosity, kindness, humility and hope.