As a non-scientist, I view the conventional incremental approach to advances in the scientific community as something of a millstone and a bar to progress, rather than as a safe way of edging back the frontiers of knowledge. Leaps of faith like acceptance of complexity theory are rendered almost impossible by the gradualist brick-on-brick approach to research. Nowhere is this truer than in the field of mental health, where there has been a painful and yet to be completed shift from a medical to a holistic view of mental illness. Equally challenging has been acceptance of the fact that ‘holistic’ should not mean ‘the whole user’ but ‘the user and his carers, family and circle of support’.

By focusing on the families of mental health service users and the concept of family, Jones in Myths, Madness and the Family has attempted to break the mould, which he regards as inhibiting a full and proper analysis of the role and function of families and carers in the context of mental illness: they are not peripheral to the situation, instead ‘families themselves have been active in shaping responses to mental illness’, and are ‘a useful resource’.

Friends and Family: Supporting People in Mental Distress, a straightforward package of video and booklet, takes a similar approach and presents the care of a mentally ill relative or friend in terms of a series of joint learning experiences, rather than as a rigid checklist of things to do and not to do. The video, which features a small number of carers and users, all articulate and willing to explore difficult areas, allows viewers to acquire both a sense of not being alone in the problems they face and also an awareness of the fact that, despite the realisation that every circumstance is unique, what they share far outweighs their differences.