Reconceptualizing Mental Illness in the Digital Age: Ghosts in the Machine

The Digital Age has changed everything. Mental illness is nothing like what it was even twenty years ago. Since the advent of the Internet, suicide rates have soared. Depression has become the single most debilitating disease in the world. The majority of people who go to their doctor, to an emergency department, and to urgent care have no discernible physical disease. Roughly half of all adults in Western countries struggle with at least one addiction.

We now live in a 24/7 miasma of media bombardment, of neuro-saturation, and of mental exhaustion. Technology has obliterated the human mind’s ability to keep up, and in this brave new world it is time for an honest and forthright reassessment of both mental illness and mental wellness.

This book elegantly describes how we got to this point, the culmination of different historical perspectives on mental illness, and the evolution of the digital disorders of our time. It offers a reconsideration of normal versus pathological, and the possibility and desirability of achieving mental wellness in a digital environment.


Elliott B. Martin, Jr. is Director of Medical Psychiatry at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, part of the Mass General Brigham integrated healthcare system in the Boston area. He is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, USA. He is board-certified in general psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, and addiction medicine. Prior to his return to medical school, he was a linguist and philologist. He has published over 50 articles in academic and popular journals, including research on clinician emotions during crises, philosophical and moral issues in medicine, the history of medicine and psychiatry, translations of ancient medical texts, and critical commentaries on current issues in psychiatry and medicine. He is a regular contributor to the Psychiatric Times and Op-Med.

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ISBN: 1-5275-6973-X

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-6973-7

Release Date: 30th July 2021

Pages: 371

Price: £64.99

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ISBN: 1-5275-9569-2

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-9569-9

Release Date: 28th March 2023

Pages: 371

Price: £32.99

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