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Everything Old Is New Again: Recovery and Serious Mental Illness

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Sociology of Mental Health

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine the emergence of recovery as an organizing construct within the mental health system and consider how it is changing mental health policy and practice, particularly as it relates to the treatment of people with “serious mental illness.” Recovery is most simply understood as the belief that people with mental health problems can “get better.” While this general idea is not new, it is currently a contested construct within the mental health field. We highlight several competing definitions of recovery and examine how these ideas have been incorporated into contemporary treatment modalities. We conclude with a discussion of how sociologists can contribute to a better understanding of the sociological dimensions of recovery and how a “sociology of recovery” might contribute to a more comprehensive and robust sociology of mental health and illness.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, IUPUI, 714 N. Senate Ave, Suite EF200, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA

    Dennis P. Watson

  2. Department of Sociology, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, USA

    Anne McCranie

  3. Department of Sociology, School of Public Health, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA

    Eric R. Wright

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  1. Dennis P. Watson
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  2. Anne McCranie
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Correspondence to Dennis P. Watson .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA

    Robert J. Johnson

  2. Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA

    R. Jay Turner

  3. Columbia University, New York, New York, USA

    Bruce G. Link

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Watson, D.P., McCranie, A., Wright, E.R. (2014). Everything Old Is New Again: Recovery and Serious Mental Illness. In: Johnson, R., Turner, R., Link, B. (eds) Sociology of Mental Health. SpringerBriefs in Sociology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07797-0_6

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