If recovery is an individualized process, how can it be put into a model? Doesn’t trying to measure it or model it lose the richness of one’s personal experience?
The stage model of psychological recovery is a conceptual model with the purpose of assisting understanding and sharing of experience; and also generating fruitful research questions. It is a model, therefore it is an abstraction from a collection of experiences, and is not an experience, nor does it claim to be. Whilst the experience of recovery is an individual process, some common factors do exist in terms of the psychological process. For example, most people appear to find hope important and most people address issues regarding identity in relation to illness at some point. By creating a map of a city one does not claim to know the exact experience of the traveller. The map, however, may still be useful for the traveller. The richness of personal experience is definitely lost when one abstracts from the individual situated experience to the general – from the qualitative to the quantitative. This is a reality and not unique to the stage model of psychological recovery. The purpose, however, is not to capture the rich unique experience, but rather provide a broad framework as a reference point for multiple viewpoints and stories – not one single story.
The stage model of psychological recovery is a conceptual model with the purpose of assisting understanding and sharing of experience; and also generating fruitful research questions. It is a model, therefore it is an abstraction from a collection of experiences, and is not an experience, nor does it claim to be. Whilst the experience of recovery is an individual process, some common factors do exist in terms of the psychological process. For example, most people appear to find hope important and most people address issues regarding identity in relation to illness at some point. By creating a map of a city one does not claim to know the exact experience of the traveller. The map, however, may still be useful for the traveller. The richness of personal experience is definitely lost when one abstracts from the individual situated experience to the general – from the qualitative to the quantitative. This is a reality and not unique to the stage model of psychological recovery. The purpose, however, is not to capture the rich unique experience, but rather provide a broad framework as a reference point for multiple viewpoints and stories – not one single story.
