Abstract
People on the receiving end of mental health services have an increasingly important role to play in the transformation of mental health care. It is argued that user involvement in itself does not guarantee a good outcome, but we need to take the views of (ex-)patients seriously without trying to fit them into theories. Dealing with the, often uncomfortable, relationship between patients and mental health professionals, and that between patients and relatives' organisations, two main strands in the European patients' movement are identified: those who seek to abolish psychiatry (abolitionists) and those who seek to reform it (reformists).
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