A Psychiatrist’s Life: Najibabad to Birmingham via Thatta

Dr. N. M. Yousufzai is a retired consultant psychiatrist and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. His autobiography describes in compelling detail his journey from a moderately poor but proud family of Pathans in the small town of Najibabad, India, in 1936, through the horrors of Partition and his struggle for survival and education in early Pakistan, to success in the UK and work as a Clinical Tutor, member and chairperson of a number of educational and administrative boards and committees, medical director of an NHS Trust and adviser to his local Marriage Guidance Council for a number of years. This is the story of a long, hard struggle, cleverly analysed and described in vivid terms. Dr. Yousufsai is brutally frank and honest about his own weaknesses and he describes, in brief, a number of interesting cases he had the privilege to help, in the hope that this will give insight to the general public about the nature and variety of human problems that psychiatrists deal with - and in the hope that it will also help to reduce the stigma of mental disorders and shed light on the interaction of body and mind.