Phil Yanos

I grew up on the grounds of a state hospital on New York City’s Ward’s Island, and my commitment to helping people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses began when I volunteered at the hospital as a college student. I write about the island—and what it was like to grow up there—in my book Exiles in New York City.

Even then, I didn’t yet have an overarching philosophy about what the purpose of that help should be.

In 1994, while I was a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology, I learned about the concept of recovery from mental illness from one of my professors. That discovery changed the direction of my life. I eventually spoke with Dr. Ed Knight, then the director of the Mental Health Empowerment Project, and decided to dedicate my career to furthering recovery.

Ed, a sociologist by training, had a profound impact on me. After his passing, I wrote about what I learned from him in this blog post: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/written/201901/lessons-about-recovery