Sök artiklar i SveMed+

Tidskrift

Sammanfattning

An increasing number of policy documents are recommending that the recovery perspective be used as a guiding principle in the development of psychiatric care. The recovery perspective also implies a formalized user involvement in the planning and managing of treatment interventions. The present article questions whether it is possible to integrate this perspective in psychiatry’s current practice and body of knowledge. Three aspects are investigated: What are mental disorders? Who are the users? Which factors contribute to the recovery process? Psychiatry’s belief in chronic illnesses that follow a given course of development is contrasted with the view of mental problems as being related to life events with recovery as a likely course of development. The dominant view in psychiatry is that the patient is irrational and incapable of interpersonal relationships. Results in recovery research place the user in his or her social context and show that the managing of symptoms and stigma is possible. Where psychiatry focuses on specific treatment interventions, the users themselves point at a variety of helping factors where interpersonal relationships play a central role. An integration of users’ experience-based knowledge in the arena of psychiatry would deeply transform its current knowledge and practice.

MeSH