The Roots of the Recovery Movement in Psychiatry: Lessons Learned

“This is an important contribution from international leads, which offers the reader interested in recovery an awareness of its substantial ethical and political foundations and the need to sustain a civil rights perspective.” (British Journal of Psychiatry, 2011)

“Just as Tuke and the late 18th century reformers were bold in their vision of moral treatment, we need to be bold about recovery. Davidson et al. provide some of the conceptual and political framework for that vision, and it is these aspects of their book that will help practitioners build recovery focused mental health services.” (Metapsychology, February 2011)”This book should be required reading for any young professional entering the mental health field. Education in the history of the development of applied psychology will often give the reader a self-satisfied glow. We know so much more now than in the days of insulin shock therapy, hydrotherapy, and psychoanalysis. The Roots of the Recovery Movement in Psychiatry: Lessons Learned drives home the point that we can learn as much from the successes of our predecessors as we can from their mistakes”. (American Psychological Association, 17 November 2010)

“This book is a wonderful contribution to the literature attempting to untangle the web of what recovery truly means to individuals and how care can continue to evolve to meet the fundamental rights of human beings with serious mental illnesses.” (Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, Summer 2010)”However the book is not limited to the study of psychiatry- it illustrates how psychiatry has been influenced by other disciplines such as philosophy, sociology, psychology, political theory, and civil rights. This is the major strength of this book.” (British Journal of Wellbeing, September 2010)

The book reaches beyond the usual boundaries of psychiatry to incorporate lessons from related fields, such as psychology, sociology, social welfare, philosophy, political economic theory, and civil rights. From Jane Addams and the Settlement House movement to Martin Luther King, Jr., and Gilles Deleuze, this book identifies the less well-known and less visible dimensions of the recovery concept and movement that underlie concrete clinical practice.

In addition, the authors highlight the limitations of previous efforts to reform and transform mental health practice, such as the de-institutionalization movement begun in the 1950s, in the hope that the field will not have to repeat these same mistakes. Their thoughtful analysis and valuable advice will benefit people in recovery, their loved ones, the practitioners who serve them, and society at large.

Foreword by Fred Frese, Founder of the Community and State Hospital Section of the American Psychological Association and past president of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Association

“This well-written, interesting volume should serve to provide significant edification and enlightenment to anyone desirous of a better grounding in how we have arrived at these relatively halcyon days of transforming our approach to persons with serious mental illness from one focusing primarily on care to one where the primary goal is that of recovery” (see Excerpt above for full Foreword).