The article focuses on Khameer Kidia’s book *Empire of Madness: Reimagining Western Mental Health Care for Everyone*, which critiques conventional psychiatric approaches by emphasizing the social, economic, and historical roots of mental illness, particularly the impacts of colonialism, capitalism, and inequality. Kidia, an internist working in both Boston and Zimbabwe, advocates for a broader model of care that includes social prescribing—addressing patients’ needs for housing, financial support, and community connection—and highlights culturally specific healing practices like Zimbabwe’s Friendship Bench program. He argues that mental health care must extend beyond medical treatment to include structural changes such as wealth redistribution and reparations to address systemic oppression. The book calls for physicians to adopt roles as advocates for social justice and for health care systems to prioritize humanity, presence, and nonjudgmental listening in patient care. [Extracted from the article]
