The Evolving Understanding of Recovery: What Does the Sociology of Mental Health Have to Offer?

Summary: The meaning of recovery from serious mental illness (SMI) has evolved over time. Whereas it was not even considered to be a primary goal of treatment 30 years ago, it is the main focus of mental health policy today. These changes are partially the result of sociological research conducted during the age of institutional treatment and the early stages of community-based care. Despite these early influences, the sociology of mental health has largely overlooked the explicit study of recovery. This is because sociologists began shifting their focus from the study of SMI to the study of less severe mental health problems beginning in 1970s. In this article, I (a) discuss the evolving history of mental health recovery; (b) discuss how recovery is defined today in policy, practice, and research; and (c) present an argument for why sociological perspectives and methods can help shed light on the tensions between the definitions while assisting to develop better understandings of the recovery process. In this argument, I place particular attention on qualitative social psychological perspectives and methods because they hold the most potential for addressing some of the central concerns in the area of recovery research.