User:Mindbodypedia/Suzanne O'Sullivan

Suzanna O'Sullivan is an Irish neurologist working in Britain.

Career
O'Sullivan is from Dublin, and studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin. She is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London. O'Sullivan completed an MA in creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, in November 2015.

Epilepsy and health services for patients with severe functional neurological disorders are her main concerns throughout her lifetime.

First book
It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness, published by Chatto & Windus in 2015, is O'Sullivan's first book.

Content
Through this book, Dr. O'Sullivan reveals the hidden tensions behind strange symptoms, revealing the world of psychosomatic sickness. She also delves into the taboos surrounding psychosomatic sickness such as the ways our brains play out with compassion and the reason behind why we do not give credit to the mind-body link.

In the book, O'Sullivan explains thoroughly complex concepts of previous neurological studies and works of Freud, Janet, Charcot. The book also gives knowledge on the history of medical devices that help with modern day neurological disorders detection (EEG), patient's diagnosis, cures and results.

Characters
Pauline, a 27-year-old woman, has had seizures, infections, and paralysis since her mid-teens.

Matthew, who believes he has MS, shows up with a big ream of medical articles and a tense-looking wife.

Camilla, a prominent lawyer, suffers from severe seizures that make her feel humiliated in the face of medical care and public scrutiny, even contempt.

Second book
Brainstorm: The Detective Stories from the World of Neurology is O'Sullivan's second book, published in 2018 by Chatto & Windus.

Content
In this book, Dr. O'Sullivan, a psychosomatic condition researcher, documents her travels throughout the world to see communities affected by a "mystery illness."

This book mainly discusses about real-life epilepsy situations that throughout O'Sullivan's career: different patients with different epilepsy symptoms are detected and treated, or left with the illness, by different methods.

Characters
Donal, 30 years old, sees the dwarves – “seven small brightly coloured men”, and he is cut out from his job.

Maya with symptoms are seizures that cause her hard time to express, talk, act normally.

Sharon with seizures are black out, sudden shaking and acts.

There are more characters in the book that are treated by Dr. O'Sullivan for epilepsy. However, while most of the patients are successfully treated, not all of the patients are recovered or exited from such illness.

Third book
The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness is her third book, and also the most recent one. The book was published in 2021 by Pantheon.

Content
This book touches on Dr. Suzanne O'Sullivan's many challenging cases where most patients, including their doctors, are unaware of the source of their unpleasantness. She showcases how in the end everything is linked to the brain and how much room there is to learning about our complex brains.

The book investigates many facets of psychosomatic diseases, mass hysteria, and culture bound syndromes (a collection of symptoms that occur solely within a specific civilization), to Dan Frank at Pantheon in a pre-empt.

Personal life
She completed an MA in creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, in November 2015. She also studied medicine, neurology and clinical neuropsychology, at Trinity College Dublin.

She was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 in November, 2018, in the series The Life Scientific. She appears regularly at events such as the Hay Literary Festival.

Achievements
Winner of the Wellcome Book Prize 2016 for It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness.

Winner of the Royal Society of Biology General Book Prize for It's All in Your Head: True Stories of Imaginary Illness.

Winner of the AITO Travel Writer of the Year in 2018 for Brainstorm: The Detective Stories from the World of Neurology.

Winner of the Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize in 2021 for The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness.