Recovery from Serious Mental Illness: A Concept Analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of recovery in the context of serious mental illness. The analysis uses literature from multiple health care disciplines and different uses of "recovery" in every- day language, technical applications, and popular culture. This iterative process concludes with a definition of recovery from serious mental illness: a nonlinear process of self-organization and adaptation that offsets the personal disintegration of mental illness and enables the individual to reconceive his or her sense of self and well-being on all biopsychosocial levels. The relevance of the concept is reevaluated with this definition for potential usage in the mental health care setting.