The moving stories that people with a mental illness have published were the inspiration for this work, and we are deeply indebted to all those people who have shared their experiences with others in order to enhance our understanding. We have written this book to share a model of psychological recovery from mental illness which was derived from many personal accounts. There is a large and growing scholarly literature on recovery, most of which is in broad agreement about the elements of recovery and the many influences on the course of mental illness and its impact on the individual.
