Has Medicine Lost Its Mind?: Why Our Mental Health System Is Failing Us and What Should Be Done to Cure It

by Robert C. Smith MD

Overview

One in four Americans suffer from mental illness, yet 75% receive no treatment at all - discover why our healthcare system is failing millions and learn how we can fix it.

In this groundbreaking examination of America's mental health crisis, internationally recognized physician Dr. Robert C. Smith exposes the devastating gap between physical and mental health treatment. Drawing on decades of clinical experience and evidence-based research, he reveals how the historical mind-body split in medicine has created a two-tier system of care with catastrophic consequences.

Key revelations include:

• Why medical schools fail to properly train physicians in mental health care
• How untreated mental illness costs society hundreds of billions in preventable healthcare expenses
• The hidden toll on families and communities when depression, anxiety, and substance abuse go untreated
• A practical roadmap for reform that puts mental health care on equal footing with physical medicine

Written with both scientific rigor and compassionate insight, this urgent call to action provides policymakers, healthcare leaders, and concerned citizens with a clear path forward. Dr. Smith, recipient of the George Engel Award and Career Teaching Achievement Award, brings unparalleled expertise to this critical examination of how we can transform mental healthcare in America.

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493087655
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Robert C. Smith, MD is internationally recognized for his evidence-based teaching innovations in mental health care and the doctor-patient relationship as developer of the first evidence-based patient-centered method to guide teachers and their medical and nursing students and residents to master a physician’s single most important skill: the ability to communicate and form a strong partnership with the patient.

Among many awards, Dr. Smith has received the Master recognition from the American College of Physicians, the George Engel Award for Outstanding Research from the Academy on Communication in Healthcare, and the Career Teaching Achievement Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine. He has obtained major grant support from, for example, the private Fetzer Institute and federal institutions such as Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). 

Editorial Reviews

In this compelling book, Robert C. Smith, an internist and prominent figure in biopsychosocial medicine, advocates for transformative reform in the health care system. He emphasizes the need to integrate biopsychosocial principles into patient care to revive the true spirit of medicine. Smith shares his experiences and challenges during his medical training, which highlight the emotional consequences of feeling that he provided inadequate support for his patients, prompting him to rethink his approach to care. This thoughtful and well-written book will help readers understand the current health care crisis and the need for federal intervention to correct it.

Douglas A. Drossman

Smith makes a convincing case for paying more attention to patients’ mental health.

Booklist

A passionate plea for reforming medical education from a doctor who has devoted his career to teaching student doctors how to listen to patients. Robert C. Smith now he goes on to describe the benefits that would flow if all physicians knew how to understand and help mental health problems. Patients would benefit, of course, but his proposal could also improve physician satisfaction and medicine as a whole.

Randolph Nesse

The answer is a convincing ‘yes,’ medicine has lost its mind. But there is hope! Using data from important clinical studies and remarkable stories from his practice, Smith lays out the lament, a call to action, and a path to progress. This is an important and thought-provoking assessment and plan for anyone interested in how our mental health crisis became so bad and how we can solve it.

Aron Sousa

This book offers a comprehensive understanding of the staggering neglect of the mental well-being of our nation’s people and an equally comprehensive prescription for solving this shortfall. Like a good systems thinker, Robert C. Smith ties it all together, from training to policymaking, from conversing with patients to adopting new paradigms of health. Smith brings to bear formidable knowledge, wisdom, and judgment, fifty years in the making, and offers us a coherent way forward—as citizens, patients, activists, clinicians, educators, and policymakers. I recommend this timely book to anyone who cares about the future of medicine, health care, or the health of the people in this nation.

Frank deGruy

Somewhere along its journey through millennia, medicine lost track of the centrality of mental health in human wellness. The cost in needless suffering and avoidable death has been immense. Full of compelling patient stories and historical detail, Has Medicine Lost Its Mind? explains how we got here, why it matters, and what to do about it. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about reuniting care for both the mind and the body, and anyone who has experienced the costs of failing to do so.

Don Berwick

Has Medicine Lost Its Mind? tells the depressing story of our nation’s failed mental health system. Like a psychoanalyst delving deep into the origin of a patient’s problem, Smith explores the history beginning with mental health’s infancy and the mind-body split. And as with all unresolved mental health issues, he explains how ignoring them has made their current manifestations dramatically worse. Anyone who has ever been anxious or depressed, or struggled with a family member suffering from a more serious psychological problem, will find comfort in the solutions he proposes.

Dr. Robert Pearl

Mental health has long been an orphan in health care. In this timely book, Robert C. Smith argues that, now more than ever, health care needs to integrate mental and physical health. Smith shares wisdom from patients, physicians, and philosophers to remind us that splitting the mind from the body neglects both. No health without mental health has long been a refrain from mental health advocates. In this important book, Smith draws on a lifetime of experience to show us how to integrate mental and physical health to create whole-person care.

Thomas Insel