[Chances and problems of the recovery approach from a psychiatric viewpoint]

The so-called recovery approach is consciously demarcated from traditional psychiatry and enforces claims to introduce a paradigmatically new view on mental healthcare. Recovery is perceived as an individual-centered activating process, enabling mentally ill persons to live with hope and meaning despite disabilities. In some countries recovery is widely used by psychiatric nurses and mental health workers and to some extent is now part of national health programs. Nevertheless, concerted discussions from a psychiatric perspective are rare and the nomenclature is sometimes vague. A brief review of the model, its theoretical roots and the discussion on whether it is novel is given. Finally, strengths and critical aspects of the approach are compared and clinical questions exemplified.