The Experience of Recovery among Schizophrenics Who Continue to Live in a Local Community

Abstract

The objective of this study was to elucidate the experience of recovery among schizophrenics who continue to live in a local community. Five schizophrenics were analyzed using the phenomenological approach advocated by Giorgi.

Results showed that the schizophrenics’ experience of recovery was one in which they were able to “recognize a previously unknown self that had only existed in the understanding of others” and in which, in contrast to their unknown self, they ascertained the known self that they had continuously recognized from the past until the present and realized that “the unknown and the known selves co-exist.” To ensure that the unknown and the known selves continue to co-exist, it is necessary to “maintain and reinforce the known self.” The experience of recovery from schizophrenia may be described an ongoing process because of the inextricable connection between the unknown self and the known self.

The accumulation of known selves is believed to lead to a reconstruction of self-identity, and thus this process is assumed to be ongoing.