This book presents previously untold narratives of South Asian psychiatrists in the UK and provides insight into the significance of cultural identity, migration and marginalisation on their lives and work. The development of cultural psychiatry arose to meet the needs of multiethnic populations. A hitherto overlooked area in the field is the impact of white privilege on psychiatrists from ethnic minority backgrounds. Through the lived experience of South Asian psychiatrists, this pioneering book delves into the effects of structural marginalisation, the culturally specific needs of South Asian populations and the impact of migration across generations. Personal accounts impart the importance of recognising the cultural hybridity of ethnic identities and how to work within cultural frameworks. Set in the UK context, findings can be applied more widely to other diaspora settings, and are critical in understanding contemporary insights into cultural psychiatry and diverse cultural environments.

‘When anyone in the UK suffers a major mental illness, who are you going to call? South Asian psychiatrists might stake a surprisingly vigorous claim to be the largest ethnic grouping of psychiatric specialists, responsible for the mental health of the entire nation, via the NHS. Yet they remain a neglected and unfashionable subject, often facing direct racial antagonism from their own patients. This is a scholarly, yet personal, attempt to redress the injustice of their marginalisation. How they have soldiered on despite astonishing obstacles placed in their way by the NHS, their colleagues and the regulator of the medical profession, the General Medical Council, is an important, riveting, yet timely, drama.’

Raj Persaud - FRCPsych, Consultant Psychiatrist, Harley Street, London; author of The Mental Vaccine for Covid 19 (Amberley Press)