The journey through disruptive loss and transformational gain: a co-creative single case study on writing and publishing after psychosis.

BACKGROUND: This paper explores how writing and publishing can contribute to recovery after psychosis, focusing on lived experience. Collaborating with DW, whose creative work engages existential and philosophical questions, we examine how narrative expression may help respond to experiences of loss and destabilization. METHODS: Using a co-constructive single-case study design, we analyzed DW's published and unpublished writings in dialogue with psychoanalytic and recovery-oriented frameworks. The data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. RESULTS: Writing emerged as a vital tool for DW to navigate and stabilize his experience. Identified themes include: (1) Grasping the past; (2) Existing in the present; and (3) Hoping for the future. Publishing initiated a second movement: (4) Coming to closure for oneself and others; (5) Reframing psychosis and psychiatry; and (6) Guiding only one other a step forward. CONCLUSION: The case study shows how writing can support recovery by restoring narrative coherence, stabilizing self-experience, legitimizing spiritual meaning, and sustaining life-engagement. Publishing, in its turn, helps reaching others, creating possibilities for recognition and reconnection. Rather than opposing forces, loss and transformation appear as interwoven dynamics in recovery. Narrative practices like writing and publishing can be valuable existential tools for individuals reconstructing meaning after psychosis.