The Concept of
Reclamation
The Metaphor of Reclamation
Across the estuary from our
home in Scotland lies the landing strip of Dundee
airport. This was once submerged beneath the
estuary but, over many years, was gradually drained,
and protected from further flooding by a sea wall.
What once was lost from view - indeed was viewed as
useless - was brought into view, and transformed
into something of great value. This work was
accomplished slowly, with great effort and skill,
not to mention at some considerable risk to the
people involved.
This provides a fitting
metaphor for the process of reclamation that
is possible for those whose lives have been
submerged by the experience of madness. The old
English term madness evokes the range and
depth of the disruption involved. In reclaiming
their lives from the waters of madness, people bring
to the surface a person who has, to large
extent, been lost from view: Lost from the sight of
family and friends if not also from themselves.
Reclaiming Our Humanity
When people enter mental
health services their personal identity is submerged
- not so much by the experience of madness (or
mental health problems), as by bureaucratic
labelling. They cease to be 'persons', with their
own lives, loved ones and hopes and dreams, and
become 'patients', 'clients' or 'service users'.
These make the individual anonymous; just another
'patient', or 'client' or 'service user'.
If people are to recover their
lives, the first thing they need to do is to reclaim
the stories of their lives. These stories belong to
them as unique persons, not anonymous
'service users'!
The Challenge of
Reclamation
When people reclaim their
lives, they are required to undertake the lengthy,
difficult and often threatening process of draining
the effects of madness from their lives;
transforming something that once was thought to be
both meaningless and worthless, into
something of great value if not priceless.
We have met and worked with
many people over the years who have helped us
understand what the process of reclamation might
entail. They helped us appreciate the personal and
interpersonal effort involved, but also how the
reclamation attitude contrasts with
traditional ideas of helping the so-called ‘mentally
ill’. Most of all they reminded us that we are all
in recovery. We are all struggling with something -
perhaps a variety of things - that haunt us,
limiting our capacity for becoming fully human.
Hopefully, in your experience
of working with the Tidal Model, you will
meet people who are involved in reclaiming
their stories, and thus beginning to recover the
whole of the lives that were lost from view. We
hope, also, that you will become more aware of your
own losses, that may need reclaiming, as part
of your own recovery voyage.
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