4/ Editorial introductions

In chapter twenty three, John Daniel offers an account of his experience from both sides of the fence of mental health work. Contrasting the restrictive attitudes of some mental health clinicians with the empowering nature of self-help methods such as the Twelve Step approach, John draws on his own past journey through addiction, depression and other mental health problems to inform and reconstruct his present journey into the unknown territory of a terminal illness through AIDS. The themes endorsed throughout the text reappear in this chapter: The potential for abuse of interpersonal power in professional relationships, the political and spiritual potential of developing an alternative approach to understanding mental distress: the politics and the pilgrimage of breakdown and breakthrough. The point is emphasised that any ideology which can be manipulated, can equally well be used to (ethically) good effect. The theme re-emerges that telling one's story, restructuring creatively one's understanding of oneself (one's 'personal ideology') where appropriate, but always remaining true to one's experience, is essential to the pursuit of integrity and an ethical life.

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