For the individual a psychotic episode involves the profound experience of distress and identity confusion. The process of recovery includes redefining the self, understanding what has happened and finding new meaning and purpose in order to establish a personally satisfying, hopeful and contributing life.

Hope may be defined as a primarily future-orientated expectation of attaining personally valued goals that will give or restore meaning to one's own experiences. As such it may be seen as a pre-requisite for recovery but also as an important outcome of the recovery process.

This presentation will explore the connection between hope and the attribution of meaning in the process of overcoming demoralisation, resolving psychological defense and integrating the experience of severe mental illness from a psychological, philosophical, and therapeutic viewpoint. Empirical data on hope and its relation to personal explanations following a psychotic episode will be presented.