Abstract

Although the etiology and course of schizophrenia spectrum disorders remain widely debated, it is beyond dispute that these conditions interrupt the lives of people experiencing them. Whether these conditions are attributed to alterations in basic brain function (Andreasen, 1984; Andreasen et al., 1998) or aspects of social and political injustice (van Os, 2004; Selten et al., 2013; Firmin et al., 2016) they involve marked changes in the life trajectories of persons as they struggle to find security and meaning in a world of contingency. The hopes, dreams, roles, and plans of people identified as having these conditions lose coherence and direction, with some feeling as if their orientation in the world has been irretrievably compromised. As identified in a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of the experience of psychosis, these changes lead to the loss of a previously held cohesive and coherent sense of self (McCarthy-Jones et al., 2013).