‘Pulling down churches’: accounting for the British Mental Health Users’ Movement

Abstract A study of the British Mental Health Users’ Movement (MHUM) is reported, based upon interviews with some of its participants. These accounts are analysed in terms of three main themes: ideology and policy; relationships between users and non‐patients; and relationships between the movement and statutory and voluntary agencies. The data are discussed in relation to international comparisons and with regard to preceding opposition to traditional psychiatric theory and practice in Britain. The emergence of the MHUM is accounted for within the context of existing theoretical analyses of new social movements. Strengths and weaknesses of the movement are highlighted and prospects for its future discussed.