ABSTRACT
Jan Wallcraft The psychosocial challenge to biomedical dominance in mental health, which been ongoing for centuries, is in the 21st century bolstered by broad alliances between psychosocial professionals and academics, the voluntary sector and the service user movement. The recovery paradigm is a unifying factor for this alliance. I will examine here whether recovery is a paradigm in itself or an aspect of other worldviews. People with different perspectives, including those who accept the biomedical model of mental illness, have claimed recovery as part of their model. Is there a ‘pure’ version of recovery that cannot be co-opted to fit pre-existing views?
