David Whitwell's thesis is that it is not conventional psychiatric treatment that is key to recovery, but non-specific aspects of care such as support, safety, general health, good relationships. The author's conclusion is that recovery should be adopted as the goal of mental health services. Treatment then becomes just one option that can be used in certain situations. For example, acute psychiatry becomes a particular set of procedures for dealing with essentially urgent and dangerous situations-as a special kind of first aid which needs to be fitted into the individual's long-term recovery...

Whether used for personal reference or as a text for a class in the history of the wind band this book is the most comprehensive single-volume history of the wind band ever written. This volume draws on the author's multi-volume History and Literature of the Wind Band and follows the development of the wind band through the civic, court, church and military performances of the Ancient World through the nineteenth century.