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In 1987, Pat Deegan wrote a paper
about her experience of recovery after being diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Using the tiny sea rose as a metaphor for the journey of recovery she
wrote:
It is springtime and hope is everywhere. It is springtime
and it feels like all living things are trembling into being, still
wet and new and fragile and determined to put down roots and grow.
I think of a sea rose I watched growing out
at a beach near my home this past summer. It is a fragile and tender
life, that sea flower. I love to see it. At dawn it moves in a
slow upsway as it turns toward the morning star. That sea rose
is a light seeker. It bends toward the light. It is a light-seeker
whose roots reach way down into the darkness of the earth. In fact,
it was in darkness that his new life began.
Way back in January and February, when the icy
winds lashed across those dunes and the days were short and the
light gave no warmth, even then, way down under the ground, this
new life was waiting. Nobody could see it, nobody was there to
witness it, and yet this promise of a sea flower waited. It waited
in that icy darkness for the sands to begin to thaw. It waited
for the rains to come and loosen the earth. And then, ever so slowly,
it began to stir. Moving one grain of sand at a time, it began
to grow.
It did not grow straight toward the light at
first. No. First its growth sought a downward course, reaching,
stretching, blindly groping through shifting sands to find a solid
place. A place to be rooted. A good soil to cling to and to be
nurtured by. A home soil that could sustain it even in driving
rains and tormenting winds. And then, having rooted itself in this
way, the sea rose began its journey toward the light. Poking through
the darkness, that sea flower emerged tiny and lovely and insistent
and courageous. On frail and trembling limbs, this small thing
rose to a new life…
That sea rose teaches us a lot about hope. It
teaches us that hope emerges out of darkness. It teaches us that
hope can grow in nurturing environments that allow one to become
rooted and secure. And I have come here today to celebrate the
hope symbolized by that sea rose…
Almost three decades later Pat is still celebrating
the conspiracy of hope for recovery. She formed this organization to
continue to promote the good news that recovery is not the privilege
of a few exceptional people, but a possibility for all who have been
diagnosed with a mental disorder.
Click here to read Pat’s paper Recovery,
Rehabilitation and the Conspiracy of Hope.
Download
the full text of Pat’s paper: Recovery, Rehabilitation and
the Conspiracy of Hope.
This download is in PDF format, readable with Adobe
Acrobat Reader, 5.0. Download the reader for free from Adobe.
Mission Statement
Pat Deegan & Associates, LLC is a consumer/survivor/ex-patient
run organization. Our mission is to improve the personal, social, economic
and cultural well being of people with psychiatric disabilities through
ex-patient directed study and research. We conduct research and study
to:
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Broaden the knowledge of recovery, resilience,
empowerment and healing
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Promote self-determination for people with disabilities
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Create new resources, including self-help and
peer support materials
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Amplify the voice and support initiatives of people
of color, women, children and youth, and gay men and lesbians who
have been diagnosed with mental illness
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Discover, interpret and preserve the historical
perspective and collective heritage of people receiving services
in mental health systems
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Investigate problems with and propose solutions
to the forces that oppress and devalue people with disabilities
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