Historical and Conceptual Developments of Psychosocial Rehabilitation: Beyond Illness and Disability in a Humanistic Framework

Psychosocial rehabilitation is now coming of age and can no longer be considered as a subspecialty of psychiatry. It is therefore time to review its original foundations, past development, current status and future prospects. This paper outlines the history of psychosocial rehabilitation and its milestones: its first presentation in a textbook of psychiatry fifty years ago, the links with community care in early seventies, the conceptual framework provided by the WHO International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps in early eighties, the new challenges arising from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health at the beginning of this century, the growth of the consumers movement and the breakthrough provided by the concepts of recovery and empowerment. The shift from a humanitarian to a humanistic standpoint can provide the foundation for an updated definition of psychosocial rehabilitation that considers social inclusion as its ultimate goal.