Asylum to Action

Asylum to Action Paddington Day Hospital, Therapeutic Communities and Beyond - Community, Culture and Change

Paperback (22 Feb 2006)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Asylum to Action offers an alternative history of a libertarian therapeutic community at Paddington Day Hospital in West London in the 1970s. Helen Spandler recaptures the radical aspirations, as well as the conflicts, of the early therapeutic community movement, radical psychiatry and the patients' movement.

The author's account of the formation of the Mental Patients' Union, the first politicised psychiatric survivors group in the UK, raises questions about the connections between the service user movement, therapeutic communities, critiques of psychiatry and psychoanalytic models of intervention. In particular, Spandler challenges Claire Baron's dominant account of the subject in her influential book Asylum to Anarchy. She points out that some of the key difficulties that beset Paddington Day Hospital persist in modern therapeutic community practice and, indeed, in mental health services in general. Arguing that these dilemmas require sustained attention, Asylum to Action also informs a wider analysis of the significance of social movements, social action and critical social theory.

About the Publisher

Jessica Kingsley Publishers

Jessica Kingsley Publishers is a wholly independent company, committed to publishing books that make a difference. The company was founded in 1987 by Jessica Kingsley and has grown since then to the point where we now publish over 200 books a year, which are available throughout the world. In 2004 we opened our US office, in Philadelphia. We publish books for professional and general readers in a range of subjects. We are well known for our long established lists on the autism spectrum, on social work, and on the arts therapies. More recently we have published extensively in the fields of mental health, counselling, palliative care, and practical theology.

Book information

ISBN: 9781843103486
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Imprint: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Pub date:
DEWEY: 362.2109421
DEWEY edition: 22
Language: English
Number of pages: 171
Weight: 284g
Height: 232mm
Width: 159mm
Spine width: 10mm