About Neel

There is much more to mental health than the mere absence of mental disorder. Today, I write about all the things that I was never taught.

Neel was born in Mauritius, to a Mauritian father and a Zanzibari mother, and mostly grew up in Geneva, Switzerland.

From 1996 to 2002, he studied medicine and neuroscience in London. He then moved to Paris, where he worked as a strategy consultant and, later, as an English teacher. In 2004, he went up to Oxford to specialise in psychiatry, while simultaneously reading for a Master’s in philosophy and finding the love of wine.

He currently lives and teaches in Oxford, where he is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College. He is the recipient of the Society of Authors’ Richard Asher Prize, the British Medical Association’s Young Authors’ Award, the Medical Journalists’ Association Open Book Award, and a Best in the World Gourmand Award. His work has featured in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today, and been translated into several languages.

When he is not reading or writing, or imbibing, he enjoys cooking, gardening, skiing, learning languages, visiting museums and gardens, and travelling, especially to sunny wine regions.

Here’s a video that he recently made with the BBC, The little-known concept of hypersanity