ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to therapeutic communities (TC). It deals with a brief illustration of the core principles underlying TCs, before exploring the development of TCs in their historical context. A new concept of cooperative psychiatric therapy – the third revolution, as Rapoport eventually called it – emerged against the backdrop of profound social change during the Second World War. Three UK psychiatric hospitals were involved: Northfield in Birmingham, Mill Hill in London and the 312th Military Hospital in Stafford. The acceptance of the TC ideology in the very hierarchical establishment of the National Health Service seemed somewhat at odds with its radical anti-establishment roots. Anti-psychiatry itself became a dominant culture and there was fresh impetus to close the old asylums and reintegrate the mentally ill in the community under an agenda of social inclusion. Mental health nursing and TC practice emerge concurrently with the progressive traditions of user involvement and social psychiatry.
