All in the Mind is a 2008 novel by Alastair Campbell, the former Director of Communications and Strategy for the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Campbell has admitted that the story is partly autobiographical, although in an article in The Times on 30 October 2008 he wrote, '.

Set over a period of four days, the novel explores mental illness through its central character, Professor Martin Sturrock, described as 'widely viewed as one of the best psychiatrists in the business',[4] and several of his patients.

Among these are an alcoholic politician, a traumatised burns victim, a depressed manual worker, an adulterous barrister turned fitness fanatic and a Kosovan refugee who has been raped.

In 1986, while working as a political correspondent for the Daily Mirror, Campbell was admitted to hospital in Scotland, where he had travelled to cover a visit to Glasgow by then Labour leader Neil Kinnock.

During a stay as an inpatient at the BMI hospital in Glasgow, he was given medication to calm him, and realised that he had an alcohol problem after seeing the psychiatrist.

[5] As he recovered from the breakdown, he began work on a story about a pop star driven to the point of breakdown by a Conservative government press secretary, and after making handwritten notes during a holiday in France, he word processed them when he returned home.

[4] However, Sahmeer Rahmi, writing for The Daily Telegraph took a diametrically opposing view stating, "Because Campbell has spent his life barking orders – broadcasting not receiving – he has none of the skills needed in a novelist: curiosity, observation, interest in the human condition or in another human's opinion other than how it impacts on himself or his career.

whatever the book's merits as a study of depression, I found it difficult to distinguish between the characters for all the supplied detail, and in the end this was fatal.

the plot as a concept is not a terrible one, but the central problem is that Campbell's prose basically lacks the dexterity to convincingly render his characters' mental states on the page.