Stand up for recalcitrance!

Abstract

This is an urgent plea for action. Action for progressive change: in services and societies that frame them. Concerted action to protest and resist hurtful orthodoxies and, more importantly, communicative action to conceive alternative, better futures and seek the change that will get us there. Some of this action is already underway. Some of it barely escapes the bounds of imagination. Too little of it involves mental health nurses, and, arguably, this must be remedied. Hence this plea. I wish to make a case for a new professional identity that embraces resistance and action for change, seeking democratised solutions for service level and societal deficiencies. Recalcitrant professionalism can seek constructive alliances with recalcitrant consumers, service users and survivors to resist and transform the forces of oppression that assail us all.