Fragile Nation: Vulnerability, Resilience and Victimhood

A glimpse into the inner lives of psychiatrist Dr Ahmed’s patients in the melting pot of outer Sydney. The stories vary from closet gay Muslims, to health food fundamentalists. It is an account of the modern condition viewed through the microcosm of the consulting room. Funny, insightful, heartbreaking and inspiring, this gripping book will entertain and challenge.

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A terrific book here full of insight, information and highly interesting people…gives the book a warm and beating heart. This is a very important book…an insight into the fantastic variety of human responses to adversity.

-- Gabrielle Lord, best-selling author



Society is stretching the definition of mental health.  As Tanveer notes, mental health has been equated with emotional distress.  We are changing our view of trauma, seeking counsellors for all occasions.  What’s going on?  Tanveer’s case studies illuminate these trends.  But readers will find them interesting for their own sake, stories of humanity. His book is nothing less than an account of how we live now: from Mujahideen to Mcmansions. -- Bob Carr, former NSW Premier



Tanveer Ahmed’s Fragile Nation comes as revelation to me. I have following his writing for many years and have always been impressed by his knowledge, valuable insights and willingness to express unpopular truths. But I was riveted by his stories of the people he cares for as a psychiatrist working in Western Sydney: angry white men, alienated youth seduced by Islam, damaged refugees, the children of tiger mothers. Amazing people revealed with sensitivity and candour, blessedly free of the ideological claptrap that often captures the saintly souls who work in the helping professions. Here’s to Tanveer Ahmed – Australia’s Theodore Dalrymple. -- Bettina Arndt, author and clinical psychologist.

 

Dr Ahmed argues clearly and forcefully for a less mechanistic and bureaucratic psychiatry, which harms our culture and society as well as individuals. His book will be unwelcome in the very circles where it is most needed. --Theodore Dalrymple, UK Psychiatrist and Author



This is a fantastic read. Fragile Nation offers a compelling account of the way that culture, morality and psychology intersect and influence individual behaviour in a transnational world.

-- Frank Furedi, author and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent, United Kingdom