Experiences termed “negative symptoms” in psychosis, such as social withdrawal, reduced motivation, or blunted affect, are often described in psychiatry as some of the most disabling and difficult-to-treat symptoms. Yet these ways of naming and interpreting these experiences have also been critiqued for being pathologizing and disconnected from social context.
This course series, based on the book Psychosocial Approaches to Negative Symptoms in Psychosis, brings together chapter authors and other contributors to explore expansive, multidisciplinary responses to these experiences. Presenters will highlight diverse non-pharmacological approaches, including recovery-oriented cognitive therapy, social skills training, exercise interventions, functional analysis, digital assessment strategies, and more. The series will also incorporate lived experience and critical perspectives, inviting us to rethink what is meant by “negative symptoms” and to consider alternative framings rooted in recovery and meaning-making.
Designed for service providers, people with lived experience, families, and more, this series aims to expand the conversation beyond labels and toward more human-centered ways of supporting those navigating these challenges.
Session Description
Part 1 : Jens Tódor Roved - Lived Experience and Meaning
This talk includes an in-person narrative about childhood sexual abuse, how it resulted in detachment from the world and made the repression of the conscious Self possible, unaware of the underlying trauma for 30+ years. It tells a story of self-hatred, self-pity, and self-fulfilling prophecies that voices had pronounced. What might be diagnosed as negative symptoms was seeking comfort in isolation, surviving isolation. The continuous need to seek refuge. Struggling with everyday life, chores, education, finding a partner, and making decisions while in constant dialogue with voices. Dealing with the aftermath. So, what happened to make the breakthrough? Choosing life means sharing the trauma. Meeting the right people at the right time and them reaching out. The ability to make life choices, find occupational balance, and engage in meaningful activities such as sport. Moreover, realizing the desire to not recover from hearing voices but instead choosing to be a whole person and live according to occupational justice.
Part 2: Jeannie Bass, CPS - Lived Experience and Peer Support
Traditional clinical approaches often describe reduced motivation, emotional expression, and social withdrawal as “negative symptoms” of psychosis — fixed deficits that reflect loss of functioning. But for many people with lived experience, these states are far more complex, purposeful, and intertwined with identity, meaning, and survival. In this presentation, Jeannie Bass draws from her personal story of psychosis, hospitalization, and recovery to reconsider these experiences through a broader, more human lens.
This presentation will explore how cognitive slowing/quieting, retreat from relationships, flattening, and loss of initiative can emerge from spiritual crisis, identity disruption, chronic invalidation, or overwhelming internal and external worlds. Jeannie will contrast clinical explanations with psychological, spiritual, and peer-based interpretations, highlighting how these states often serve as protective or adaptive responses rather than evidence of deficit. Participants will also be introduced to peer-developed strategies that support reconnection, engagement, and meaning-making, including relational safety, choice, creative expression, and narrative reconstruction.
