Book description
As the global psychiatric community enters a new era of transformation,
this book explores lessons learned from previous efforts with the goal
of “getting it right” this time. In response to the common refrain that
we know about and 'do' recovery already, the authors set the recovery
movement within the conceptual framework of major thinkers and achievers
in the history of psychiatry, such as Philippe Pinel, Dorothea Dix,
Adolf Meyer, Harry Stack Sullivan, and Franco Basaglia.
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
Larry Davidson is Associate Professor of
psychiatry at the Connecticut Mental Health Center at Yale. His
patient-oriented research includes recovery from serious mental
illness, the development of qualitative and participatory research
methods, community-based treatment of psychosis, the development and
evaluation of innovative psycho-social interventions, and the
promotion of collaborative relationships between people with serious
mental illness and their healthcare providers. He received the
President's Award, United States Psychosocial Rehabilitation
Association, New York Chapter, in 2007 and the Franco Basaglia
Memorial Scholarship, Fondazione Basaglia, Rome, Italy, in 2008.
Jaak Rakfeldt is Professor of Social Work at the Southern
Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT, USA.
John Strauss is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry the Department
of Psychiatry at Yale University in New Haven, CT, USA.
