The politics of recovery
Women’s mental health activism in the UK, 1986–2002, with a focus on Bristol Crisis Service for Women
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7799377 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jeanette Copperman (0000-0002-5810-3980, The Open University, corresponding author), Sarah Chaney (0000-0003-0335-9863, Queen Mary University of London) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 152-173 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | History of the Human Sciences (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0952-6951 • E-ISSN: 1461-720X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/09526951241289061 |
| OpenAlex | W4405212199 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
In modern mental health care, ‘recovery’ does not necessarily mean the same thing for clinicians, service users, and survivor groups. This divergence is especially stark where self-injury is concerned. For clinicians, recovery often refers to cessation of self-injury; for those with lived experience, self-harm may be a temporary or long-term method of navigating trauma and distress. This article explores how the survivor-led model, which regards self-injury as an understandable reaction to distress, poverty, abuse, and discrimination emerged from second-wave feminism, the survivor movement, and the growth of grassroots mental health groups in the 1980s. We focus on Bristol Crisis Service for Women (BCSW), a peer-led listening service for women who self-injure, founded in 1986. We begin with the history of BCSW and how experiences of their founders and users caused them to advocate for a different model of self-injury. We then situate BCSW’s approach to self-harm and recovery within the frame of women’s mental health activism. Finally, we explore how BCSW and its allies criticised existing psychiatric paradigms of self-harm, showing how the individualised medical model was rooted in gendered stereotypes that failed to recognise the real-world concerns of many women. We argue that it remains important to see self-harm not as an individual health concern, but in relation to the structural and practical issues affecting users and survivors. Within BCSW, a peer-led service, experience of self-injury became not a deficit but a useful asset in supporting other women, indicating that recovery itself could be both collective and non-linear
Distress · Grassroots · Harm · Mental distress · Mental health · Mental illness · Political science · Politics · Psychiatry · Psychotherapist · Sociology · Adolescent and Pediatric Healthcare · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Mental Health and Patient Involvement · Psychology · Social Psychology
Social movements, historical absence and the problematization of self-harm in the UK, 1980–2000
A hidden activism and its changing contemporary forms
Developing women only and gender sensitive practices in inpatient wards — current issues and challenges
Between exclusion and colonisation
Developing a National Mental Health Policy for Women in the UK
IV Lesbian Psychology in Britain
Giving Evidence
Making the cut
Social Work and Women’s Mental Health
The syndrome of delicate self‐cutting
Psychological consequences of sexual inequality
The women's liberation movement, activism and therapy at the grassroots, 1968-1985
Growing up Young, Asian and Female in Britain
Delicate' Cutters
Asylums
Sex Differences and Psychiatric Disorders
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |