Go/No-Go: A Journey Into the Research and Treatment of Mental Health Disorders by Marianne Apostolides

In 2022, during a period of creative and emotional crisis, Marianne Apostolides stumbled on a scientific article that would profoundly change her understanding of the human mind. Ten months later, she was interviewing the article’s lead author and embarking on a complex and revelatory journey to unravel current approaches to mental health.

Go/No-Go documents Apostolides’s quest to decipher the research underlying new treatments for mental disorders—and to understand how that research is reshaping our fundamental sense of ourselves. She talks with leading neuroscientists, gathering information about their studies, their methods, and the resulting treatments that are in the pipeline, soon to be offered to people. All the while, she reflects on her own experiences, making the science more immediate, understandable, and relevant.

With writing that’s propulsive yet tethered to hard data, Apostolides prompts us to look at how contemporary neuroscience is redefining who we are, and why we struggle. Through vital questions posed in the book, readers come to see the flaws and failures of the current approach to mental health—while also learning how society can change course to better support people in their own journey.

Combining scientific investigation with humour, empathy, and artistic curiosity, Go/No-Go is a groundbreaking addition to an urgent dialogue about mental health.