MAKING A MINDFUL NATION: MENTAL HEALTH AND GOVERNANCE IN THE TWENTY‐FIRST CENTURY. By JoannaCook. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2023. Pp. x + 202. Hardback, $99.95; Paperback, $26.95.

Cook summarizes that in the 1950s, depression was so rare that it was not considered worth funding research into pharmaceutical treatments. By the 1990s, however, Prozac, a well-known antidepressant, had become the second most prescribed drug in the United States. The rise of mental health issues, from anxiety to depression, in recent decades parallels the growing popularity of mindfulness meditation. The study of mindfulness is flourishing in the emerging field of spirituality and mental health. Cook takes a slightly different approach. Rather than focusing on the numerous effects of mindfulness on mind and body, she examines how different mindfulness practitioners—from teachers to probation service specialists—perceive their own relationship with their minds. Drawing on the anthropology of ethics, Cook conducted ethnographic fieldwork in the United Kingdom, where she observed how an originally Buddhist meditation technique was transformed into a scientific and secular tool for mental health support. She explores how this transformation occurred and its broader consequences: the emergence of a new way individuals relate to their minds and themselves, the rise of therapeutic interventions, shifts in governance structures, and the role of political campaigns. The book is divided into six chapters, which provide insights into the development of mindfulness in the United Kingdom, changes in the explanation of depression, the integration of mindfulness into the daily practice of therapists and policymakers, the intersection of state governance and mental health, and the relationships between mental health, ethics, and economic agendas. This is a dense but rewarding read, rich in ethnographic detail and theoretical insights into the interplay between self, ethics, mind, and governmentality.