Storying Mental Illness and Personal Recovery

An exploration of the interplay between mental illness and narrative identity, offering pathways to personal recovery.

Dorthe Kirkegaard Thomsen (Author), Tine Holm (Author), Rikke Jensen (Author), Majse Lind (Author), Anne Mai Pedersen (Author)

9781108830454, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 February 2023

200 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.2 cm, 0.58 kg

'This is an important book. The focus on life stories aligns with the global movement toward positioning experiential knowledge of individuals living with mental health issues at the center of health and social care systems. Narrative approaches will become increasingly important in mental health care, and this book makes an original contribution which has wide relevance to anyone trying to support individuals experiencing mental health issues. I thoroughly recommend it.' Mike Slade, University of Nottingham, UK

This book contains excerpts of life stories from 118 individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, and major depressive disorder. This library of personal narratives, heavily reproduced and quoted throughout the text, presents a composite image of the ways in which narrative identity can be a?ected by mental illness while also being a resource for personal recovery. Those researching, studying, or practicing in mental health professions will ?nd a wealth of humanizing ?rst-person perspectives on mental illness that foster perspective-taking and aid patient-centered treatment and study. Researchers of narrative psychology will ?nd a unique set of life stories synthesized with existing literature on identity and recovery. Moving toward intervention, the authors include a 'guide for narrative repair' with the aim of healing narrative identity damage and fostering growth of adaptive narrative identity.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
1. Introducing the book
2. The science of mental illness
3. Vulnerability, stress, and burden in mental illness
4. Recovery and mental illness
5. Narrative identity
6. Narrative identity, illness, and well-being
7. How did we collect and analyze different life stories?
8. Overview of narrative identity themes from the initial analyses
9. Relationship themes in narrative identity
10. Self themes in narrative identity
11. Functional level themes in narrative identity
12. Treatment themes in narrative identity
13. Summary and synthesis
14. Understanding the interplay between narrative identity and mental illness – a framework
15. Tools for narrative repair
Conclusion
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Appendix 3
Appendix 4
Appendix 5
Appendix 6
Appendix 7
Appendix 8
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Psychiatric nursing [MQCL5], Clinical psychology [MMJ], Psychiatry [MMH], The self, ego, identity, personality [JMS], Psychology [JM]