title: Recovery and positive psychology: parallel themes and potential synergies.
abstract: The positive psychology movement studies the sources of human strength and the foundations of the "good life." Like the recovery movement, it focuses on personal fulfillment and well-being more than on mental illness. These movements have followed separate but parallel tracks. Positive psychology has traveled an academic and empirical path and the recovery movement has followed a grassroots advocacy model. The authors describe the successful use of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths in a Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatric rehabilitation program. They argue for the integration of positive psychology and the recovery movement: positive psychology provides a potentially useful framework for further defining and fostering the goals of recovery, and the recovery movement can expand the hitherto limited application of positive psychology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs Northeast Program Evaluation Center, West Haven, Connecticut 06516, USA. sandy.resnick@yale.edu
authors.forename: Sandra G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Resnick
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Rosenheck
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D003289:Convalescence; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011584:Psychology / Q000379:methods*; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D012945:Social Values; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires