ABSTRACT

Introduction: Psychosis can affect identity in fundamental ways. Increasingly, those experiencing psychosis for the first time are enrolled in early intervention services. We sought to explore how individuals enrolled in such services felt their identity was impacted by their experience of psychosis.

Methods: In-depth interviews exploring themes related to identity and psychosis were conducted with 10 participants from two early intervention services in New York City.

Findings: The experience of psychosis alienated many participants from themselves, although participants differed in whether these experiences were meaningful to their self-understanding. Participants also varied in how they sought to explain their experiences of psychosis; some participants questioned their diagnoses and the explanations offered to them, whereas others tried to negotiate between a clinical description of psychosis and their own understanding of their experiences. Many participants also experienced positive changes following their experience of psychosis, including greater maturity, empathy, and compassion.

Discussion: Some participants appeared to take on recovery styles of both integrating and sealing-over in response to their experience of psychosis, while most participants’ reports were suggestive of post-traumatic growth. Several struggled to make sense of the explanatory frameworks offered to them, drawing from various explanatory frameworks in a form of bricolage.

摘要

简介：精神病可以从根本上影响身份。越来越多的首次出现精神病的人参加了早期干预服务。我们试图探索参加此类服务的个人如何认为他们的身份受到精神病经历的影响。

方法：对来自纽约市两个早期干预服务机构的 10 名参与者进行深入访谈，探讨与身份和精神病相关的主题。

结果：精神病的经历使许多参与者与自己疏远，尽管参与者在这些经历是否对他们的自我理解有意义方面存在差异。参与者试图解释他们的精神病经历的方式也各不相同。一些参与者质疑他们的诊断和提供给他们的解释，而另一些参与者则试图在精神病的临床描述和他们自己对自己经历的理解之间进行协商。许多参与者在经历精神病后也经历了积极的变化，包括更加成熟、同理心和同情心。

讨论：一些参与者似乎对他们的精神病经历采取了整合和封闭的恢复方式，而大多数参与者的报告暗示了创伤后成长。一些人努力理解提供给他们的解释性框架，以拼凑的形式从各种解释性框架中汲取灵感。