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Suzanne O'Sullivan is an Irish physician practising in Britain, specialising in neurology [1] and clinical neurophysiology.[ not verified in body ] In addition to academic publications in her field, O'Sullivan is an author of award-winning non-fiction books, [2] [3] each focusing on medical casework related to her neurology specialty (cases that have been disguised/anonymised). [4] [5]
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O'Sullivan is from Dublin,[ citation needed ] and studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin.[ citation needed ] She qualified as a doctor in 1991. [1]
O'Sullivan completed an M.A. in creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2015.[ citation needed ]
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O'Sullivan is a neurologist, [1] clinical neurophysiologist,[ citation needed ] and writer (see following). As of 2015, she was a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. [1] [4] The main focuses of her work in neurology are in the treatment of epilepsy patients, and on improving medical care for people with psychosomatic disorders.[ citation needed ]
Included in her scholarly publications is work on Functional Neurological Disorder (FND). [6]
As of 2025, O'Sullivan had authored four non-fiction books, concerned with psychosomatic illness, epilepsy, and over-medicalisation in particular.[ citation needed ]
O'Sullivan's 2016 book, It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness, was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards—a bookshop-curated, reader-selected award—for the year of its publication, [7] and in that year it won the £30,000 Wellcome Book Prize, [8] [2] and the Royal Society of Biology's General Book Prize, for "for an accessible, engaging and informative life sciences book written for a non-specialist audience", as well. [3] An early work unrelated to her professional writing, the travel piece, "Going Off the Grid on Indonesia’s Forgotten Islands" (published in The Telegraph [9] ) won the Travel Writer of the Year Award, for longer form writing, from a trade group in 2018. [10] [11]
Her book, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness, was shortlisted for the 2021 Royal Society Science Book Prize. [12] [13] [14] The book also featured repeatedly in recommendations of the Next Big Idea Club throughout 2021 and 2022, [15] [16] [17] and the organisation interviewed O'Sullivan regarding the book in its magazine in that period as well. [18]
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The following are the four first hardcover English editions of O'Sullivan's books:[ verification needed ]
This, Sullivan's first book, was published by Chatto & Windus in 2015, [19] to positive reviews. [1] [4] It has been recognised by multiple nominations and awards. [2] [3] [7]
It's All in Your Head discusses issues surrounding psychosomatic illness, with particular attention given to its neurological manifestations.[ citation needed ] Specifically, it explores the mind-body connection through stories of O’Sullivan's patients, looking compassionately at serious medical problems that arise through psychological mechanisms.[ citation needed ] As well, O'Sullivan considers the history of the hysteria from ancient to modern times, discusses diagnosis, causes, mechanisms and treatment of neurological psychosomatic disorders in the modern era.[ citation needed ] Among the characters it presents are:
This, O'Sullivan's second book,
Brainstorm published in 2018 by Chatto & Windus. [20] is an account of how the study of epilepsy changed scientists’ understanding of the human brain.[ citation needed ] It explores modern views and treatments for epilepsy, and looks at what each teaches about how the brain functions.[ citation needed ] Among the characters Brainstorm presents are:
This, O'Sullivan's third book, was published in April 2021 by Picador in England, [21] and by Pantheon in the United States,[ citation needed ] and was lauded by The Royal Society and other organisations. [13] [14] [15]
Brandy Schillace, editor-in-chief of the journal Medical Humanities at the time her review, writes in The Wall Street Journal that O'Sullivan "uncovers... complex mechanisms while painting a picture of psychosomatic suffering that removes its associated stigma, and she asks us to think about illness in new ways." She concludes,
The Sleeping Beauties offers a brilliant, nuanced and thoughtful look at the lived experience of illness while asking important questions about the relationship between body and mind. Dr. O’Sullivan’s rich prose weaves a tapestry as hauntingly beautiful as it is scientifically valid. [22]
In this book, O’Sullivan travels to visit communities globally that are said to be affected by mass hysteria and culture bound syndromes—ways that specific cultures express distress, troubled thoughts, etc.[ citation needed ] Among the characters Brainstorm presents are:
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This, O'Sullivan's fourth book, was published in March 2025 by Thesis-Penguin Random House in England, [23] to positive early reviews. [5] [ citation needed ]
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O’Sullivan lives in London.[ citation needed ]
The judges said: A sympathetic but scientific analysis by a consultant neurologist of medical conditions for which no physical cause can be found, extensively illustrated through the use of anonymised patient histories.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Non-Fiction Award / Winner / Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig / Shortlist / SPQR by Mary Beard / Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane/ Reasons... / The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan / When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi / It's All in Your Head by Suzanne O'Sullivan.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) The press release from the AITO can be see here.{{cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)