Outside the Asylum

Lynne Jones is a child psychiatrist, relief worker and writer. She has spent much of the last twenty-five years establishing and running mental health programmes in areas of conflict or natural disaster. Her previous book, Then They Started Shooting: Children of the Bosnian War and the Adults They Become, explores children's understanding of political violence. Her field diaries have been published in the London Review of Books and O, The Oprah Magazine, and her audio diaries broadcast on the BBC World Service.Jones has an MA in human sciences from the University of Oxford. She qualified in medicine before specialising in psychiatry and has a PhD in social psychology and political science. In 2001, she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for her work in child psychiatry in conflict-affected areas of Central Europe. She regularly consults for WHO. She is currently working as a child psychiatrist in Cornwall, is an honorary consultant at the South London and Maudsley NHS trust in London, and is a visiting scientist at the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University.

Lynne Jones is a world expert on the psychiatric consequences of the trauma of war. She has not shied away from providing care to people in the heart of conflict zones, where such mental health resources are virtually non-existent. Her first hand observations will open readers' eyes to the awful connections between the neglected relationship of war and mental illness, and of what can be provided at relatively low cost, with the right planning and vision. This is essential reading for those training in mental health, to consider the broader picture of the causes of mental illness that one may not see in the routine hospital clinic. An outstanding piece of work