Fighting for Recovery

More about the book

This essential history of the recovery movement for people with mental illness recounts how former patients and advocates challenged a flawed system and fostered mental health activism. Spanning from the 1970s to the present, it highlights the importance of mental health activism for everyone, regardless of psychiatric diagnosis. The narrative, presented by professor and mental health advocate Phyllis Vine, chronicles the efforts of former psychiatric patients, families, and activists who formed a liberation movement that challenged medical authority and demonstrated that recovery from mental illness is achievable. While discussions about mental health have become more prevalent, significant numbers of individuals with psychiatric illnesses remain in jails or homeless, indicating that much work remains. This book serves various audiences: friends and family of those with serious psychiatric diagnoses seeking to understand mental health reform history; individuals grappling with their own diagnoses who wish to learn from the advocacy of others; activists within the peer-services network, including social workers and psychologists, aiming to promote change in treatment; and policymakers, clinical psychologists, psychiatric residents, or scholars looking to familiarize themselves with the social histories of mental illness.