Psychological Recovery: Beyond Mental Illness

This book addresses an international challenge in relation to recovery: how to bring empirical investigation to the consumer-developed understanding of recovery. The authors rise to this challenge superbly. They rightly position recovery as arising from the lived experience of people who use mental health services, and then develop an empirically-based understanding of the stages and processes of recovery. This empirical work has been internationally influential and the detailed description will be of wide interest. The authors then contextualise their work within the field of positive psychology and well-being research –areas which will directly inform the evolution of mental health services in the 21^st Century. I recommend this book, and hope it is widely read.
—Mike Slade, Researcher (researchintorecovery.com) and Author of ‘Personal Recovery and Mental Illness’

This book begins by examining the history of schizophrenia, and discerning the roots of pessimism in its outlook. The authors then introduce the concept of recovery, and their own model of its process, which is via a series of stages, which they show can be measured and used in treatment. One great value of a work such as this is that it injects factors that are often lacking in treatment environments, and sometimes in the minds of service providers, namely hope and optimism. As such, this book will be, or should be, of interest to all those who work with people with serious mental illnesses.
—Tom Trauer, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia

This is an exciting and important book that is sure to stimulate dialogue and debate within the rapidly growing international recovery movement. Based on years of interviews of, and conversations with, people with first-hand experiences of recovery conducted by leading recovery researchers in Australia, this book offers the beginning of a road map for the recovery journey that will be found useful by people with serious mental illnesses, their loved ones, and mental health practitioners alike.
—Larry Davidson, Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University