ABSTRACT
Promoting health and inclusion are two concepts that are often rolled together. Why,
one may ask? Because, when one considers the concepts of health and wellness, the issue
of social inclusion and exclusion, as a citizen, becomes an essential consideration. This is
even more pertinent when we consider and explore the concepts of ‘recovery’ and
‘thriving’. In this chapter, we will argue that the history of psychiatry and of mental
illness is primarily an issue of politics and citizenship. We acknowledge that not all
mental health professionals share our politicized understanding of psychiatry as a
history of exclusion, but perhaps we need to remember that the recovery movement
originates not only in the field of mental illness, but also from groups of people excluded
from society and demanding emancipation. The aim of this chapter is to therefore
highlight the way in which the history of psychiatry can be read as a history of exclusion
in order to fully understand what social inclusion means.
