Recovery from Schizophrenia: A Philosophical Framework

Abstract

There is growing evidence and hope for considerable improvement in the lives of people with schizophrenia. Such improvement has been conceptualized lately as recovery, implying improvement beyond (or unrelated to) achieving remission of symptoms, and is characterized as the process and successful outcome of achieving personal life goals. Yet the characterization of recovery to date lacks a clear philosophical framework. This article proposes a philosophical framework for the notion of recovery. Specifically, the notion of self-organization is applied to the process of recovery from schizophrenia, using writings about other health-related notions, as well as literature from theoretical biology and process philosophy. The principal conclusion is that recovery can be generally characterized as a process of adaptive or compensatory self-organization of the person as a whole and in relation to the environment.