Collective memory and mental health: Limitations, provocations, possibilities

This paper examines historical shifts in how memory is managed within mental health services. Contemporary inpatient care, whether brief or long-term-remains focused on crisis containment and risk, offering little space for memory practices beyond the therapy room. As a result, memory often becomes privatized and detached from social contexts. We argue for collective and collaborative approaches to service users' memories, which could support both patients and staff. Such practices foster awareness of how individuals interpret their past in relation to the present, strengthen connections with others, and enable generative forms of shared storytelling. We view this as central to recovery and social action, yet it remains largely absent from UK mental health services, despite being integral in other care sectors. Drawing on our work in secure psychiatric settings, we suggest ways collective memory practices might advance recovery and open new pathways between past, present, and future.