An incisive analysis and fascinating history of modern medicine's flawed relationship with diagnosis, and a clarion call to our medical establishment to do better

As featured on BBC Radio 4 (Woman's Hour, Start the Week), Times Radio, in the Telegraph (also as a bestseller), The Times, and at the Royal Institution. A diagnosis is supposed to give us certainty, our first step on the road to recovery. But what if your diagnosis is inflected by a doctor's bias, swayed by Big Pharma, or designed to protect the police? What happens when you are -- or your child is -- refused a diagnosis for a condition the establishment will not recognise? As a consultant neurologist, Dr Jules Montague saw the relief a diagnosis could bring, but she also came to see its limitations. In this eye-opening and humane account, Montague meets with the patients and families who have had their lives turned upside down by a diagnosis they never deserved. She speaks to parents fighting for recognition of their children's symptoms; men and women whose bodies have been stigmatised by society; and to the families of young black men who are being diagnosed posthumously with a condition that could exonerate their killers. Through these stories of heartbreak and resilience, Montague shines a light on the troubled state of diagnosis, and asks how we might begin to heal.

"The Imaginary Patient is a great stride forward in the way medical stories are told. Nobody who reads it will experience a doctor's appointment the same way again. Montague's writing is empathetic, surprising and forensic all at once. An extremely valuable book" - Caroline Crampton, author of The Way to the Sea

"A shocking history of the many ways in which medical diagnoses have "shown themselves to be a form of obfuscation"... Heartbreaking... [it] will make you see doctors differently" - Telegraph