You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here :A Psychiatrist’s Life
You Don't Have to Be Mad to Work Here :A Psychiatrist’s Life
paperback
Published:
15 May, 2025
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Description
**THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**
A humane, hilarious and heart-breaking window into the world of psychiatry from ‘the Adam Kay of mental healthcare’ (THE TIMES)
‘This is honestly my dream book… Fascinating’ FERN BRADY
‘Fearlessly honest, funny and uplifting’ JO BRAND
‘Very funny and deeply sympathetic. Really excellent’ HENRY MARSH
Most of the psychiatric cases in this book are Benji’s patients. Some of them are his family. One of them is him.
Unlocking the doors to the psych ward, NHS psychiatrist Dr Benji Waterhouse provides a fly-on-the-padded-wall account of medicine’s most mysterious and controversial speciality.
Why would anyone in their right mind choose to be a psychiatrist? Are the solutions to people’s messy lives really within medical school textbooks? And how can vulnerable patients receive the care they need when psychiatry lacks staff, hospital beds and any actual cures?
This is an eye-opening medical memoir – from both sides of the doctor’s desk. The perfect read for fans of This Is Going to Hurt, Unnatural Causes and The Prison Doctor.
5-STAR READER REVIEWS
‘Fantastic…searing and honest’
‘Warmth, humour and compassion’
‘This book needs to be read by everybody’
‘Both entertaining and essential!’
Sensitively written…moving and eye-opening’
‘Courageous…I could not put this book down’
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781529933420 |
| ISBN10 | 1529933420 |
| Number Of Pages | 336 |
| Item Weight | 240 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 198 x 20 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Vintage Publishing |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
Darkly amusing and touching... It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff. -- Jacqueline Wilson * *Waterstones Favourite Reads of 2024* *
Hilarious, shocking and urgent… a deeply compassionate book, which paints a picture of professional dedication in the face of almost unbelievable dysfunction * The Times, *Book of the Week* *
It has a freshness and verve that sets it apart... What is unwavering and beautifully described is the inspiration Waterhouse continues to find in his patients. He has that essential trait of all good doctors: a sincere and lasting tenderness for his flawed and frail, crude and complicated, broken and brilliant fellow human beings… Ultimately, this is a campaigning work, both brilliantly funny and deadly serious…. His book is humane, hilarious, eye-opening – and deserves to be widely read -- Rachel Clarke * Guardian *
The face of modern psychiatry -- Dr Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know
Humorous and humane … [Waterhouse] finds the funny without turning patients into punchlines... It’s a warm-hearted reminder that the [NHS] system is still staffed by many people doing their darnedest to connect with and care for people * Sunday Telegraph *
Funny, humane and insightful * i news *
A darkly comic personal trawl through the world of psychiatry and the idiosyncratic characters struggling on both sides of the divide. Honest, funny, saddening and uplifting all rolled into one -- Jo Brand, comedian and former psychiatric nurse
Very funny and deeply sympathetic. Really excellent -- Henry Marsh, author of Do No Harm
Things certainly don’t always work out for Dr Benji Waterhouse in his darkly amusing and touching memoir You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here, about his experiences as an NHS doctor specialising in psychiatry. It gives you an alarming insight into the chaotic lives of both patients and medical staff -- Jacqueline Wilson
A heartbreaking and also funny look at psychiatry. I loved this engrossing book which taught me lots of new things and broadened my mind -- Cathy Rentzenbrink
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Dr Benji Waterhouse is a front-line NHS doctor specialising in psychiatry. He is also an award-winning stand-up comedian who performs sell-out shows at the Edinburgh Festival. He has written for the Guardian and Independent, and was included in a list of 'Inspiring Psychiatrists’ by the Royal College of Psychiatrists. You Don’t Have to Be Mad to Work Here is his first book.
www.linktr.ee/dr_benji
www.instagram.com/doctor_benjis
www.twitter.com/doctor_benji