Shunned is a book exploring discrimination against people with mental health problems. It asks a lot of questions, quotes many mental health service users, looks at a huge number of research findings and comes up with some answers. It seems to have been written with a lot of passion for finding ways to defeat the inequality faced by those with mental health difficulties.

As a source of information on what research has been done to study stigma and discrimination, it is second-to-none. I cannot imagine that there is a recent academic paper in the English language that has not been tracked down and studied. It certainly filled in a lot of the holes in my knowledge. However, for all of the quotes from service users, the language and approach does not seem to be aimed at the general public.

The book is divided into areas of the mental health service user's life such as family, neighbours and work, and asks questions about the evidence for discrimination in each of these. There are frequent passages from individuals and their families about aspects of their lives in their own words. It then widens out to cover areas of society, for example mental health services and the media. These are also explored for their attitudes. Towards the end of the book there are suggestions for action that individuals and groups might take to defeat such inequality.

Although I enjoyed reading Shunned, I found myself getting irritated by a couple of things. First, the use of quotes from service users/consumers seems to be more important than their cultural context. There are pages where the text discusses one part of the world while the quotes are from another. Does culture count for that little? Also, the same quotes are sometimes used more than once, in one case on two subsequent pages.

The other thing I was uncomfortable with was the assumption that seems to pervade the book that all service users want the same things and want to be integrated into society. There are a substantial number of people among mental health service users who delight in being different, wacky and non-conformist, and others who are happy to live in what others would consider to be a lonely way. We have to acknowledge and explain these people to the general public as well.

Overall, I think this book will be of value to everyone working in mental health. Indeed, it should be obligatory reading for anyone thinking of running a anti-stigma or anti-discrimination campaign so that they can avoid things that have been shown not to work. It could also be a starting point for debates among service users on how they really want to interact with their society. I do not agree with all of it, but I am very glad I have read it.