Dafna Weinberg, B.A., Graduate Student

The Self in Recovery from Schizophrenia: The Role of Self-Esteem, Self-Esteem Stability, and Self-Clarity.

The sense of self is considered to be an essential factor in the course and outcome

of schizophrenia. The experience of psychosis is described by researchers as

undermining the construct of the self and creating a fragile and unstable sense of self.

Reconstruction of the self by generation of a consistent and reliable sense of self is

considered a fundamental part of the process of recovery. Studies emphasize the

importance of self-esteem to this process of recovery and show connections between

level of self-esteem to measures of illness' outcomes and depression. 

Most of these researches examined the level of self-esteem, however, recent studies

elicit the idea that self-esteem has additional aspects aside from its level. 

They suggest that instability of self-esteem may be more indicative of risk for

depressive symptoms than chronic low levels of self-esteem. In light of these 

findings, we propose to examine three aspects of the self concept: level of self-esteem,

stability of self-esteem and self-concept clarity. We will try to explore their role in the

process of adaptation and recovery from schizophrenia. We assume that low levels of

self-esteem, instability of self-esteem and inclarity of the self-concept, will all predict

poor adaptation in schizophrenia and higher vulnerability after stressful life events. 

In order to examine our hypothesis we intend to follow up a group of outpatients with 

schizophrenia spectrum disorders from the outpatient clinics of Shalvata Mental Health

Center over a period of six weeks. 

 

 

dafna_weinberg@yahoo.com

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