G Major to D Major to a Minor 7 (A Progression to Recovery)

Abstract

This chapter relies on the heuristic example of learning to play the guitar to prise open the affective and embodied aspects of recovery from mental illness. Combining qualitative data derived from studies of young people’s recovery from mental illness conducted in Melbourne, Australia, with an autoethnographic account of my own guitar practise, I attempt to convey something of the actual experience of recovery. Drawing from recent work on affective pedagogies, I describe the ways young people living with mental illness learn how to recover, how to manage their illness, to adapt to difficult circumstances, and to live mean- ingful, satisfying lives. Focusing on the affected body of recovery, I explore what recovery feels like, what changes it involves for young people living with mental illness, and how youth come to recognise themselves as being in recovery. I close by assessing how an attunement to affect and the body may inspire novel means of facilitating the work of recovery.