2014/05/23 by Stephanie Power, Power, Stephanie
Arts and Humanities · Health Professions · Psychology · #Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices #Mental Health and Patient Involvement #Mental Health and Psychiatry
paper · doi:10.48336/ijdpra7042
openalex publication_date 2014/05/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
Through discussing how the recovery model has become popular within the mental health system in Ontario, Poole offers an outstanding critique of recovery’s rhetoric. Using Foucault’s concepts of “discursive formation”, Poole demonstrates that the recovery model borrows concepts from biomedical discourse, and therefore is not as new and empowering as people believe. She illustrates how the recovery model actually provides a very narrow definition of how one must “recover” from “mental illness” that serves to silence psychiatric survivors that may be critical of the recovery movement. Poole also illustrates how the recovery movement is influenced by neo-liberalism, as it has become a growing industry funded by the pharmaceutical industry. Further, she offers readers insight into the inherent ‘whiteness’ of the recovery movement, which emphasizes personal responsibility, and subscribes to western ideas of individualism and western definitions of what mental health is.