ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a lived experience of the recovery of the self in psychosis, which unfolded as part of a therapeutic relationship in long-term psychotherapy. In the discussion, the beginning of recovery is situated in a decisive experience of relatedness and interconnectedness in the therapeutic encounter. This experience laid the foundation for the development of an actual relationship and was a turning point for proceeding into experiences of the reciprocity of the therapeutic interplay. As the therapy evolved, the journey was increasingly experienced as a common journey; as a shared process of understanding and meaning making in the interpersonal and intersubjective space of interactions that gradually turned into, also, a process of recovery. The chapter illustrates how profound feelings of being fundamentally isolated and separated can, in the process of recovery, gradually develop into an experience of oneself as also a relational self. The chapter frames the account of lived experience predominantly in interpersonal theory and relational therapy and relies on the work of Sullivan, Winnicott, and the French psychoanalyst André Green. The experience of relatedness and interconnectedness is described in the tradition of person-centred therapy. Following the recovery paradigm as defined by William Anthony, the concept of recovery is a personal experience but also facilitated by interpersonal processes. The final parts of the chapter draw on narrative theory and on the reflections by Winnicott on the fear of breakdown. As recovery is experienced as a process of both growth and loss, loss is described as the loss of personal identity within a diagnosis, the loss of one’s illness identity when transcending diagnosis, and fear of the profound loss of self-protection in the recovery of the self in psychosis.
