Recovering: a process of empowerment.

Persons with borderline personality disorder constitute a vulnerable population not only because of the natural history of the disorder, but also because they are frequently stigmatized by persons entrusted with altering the course of the disorder. In this article, the predominant forms of treatment that have been available to persons with borderline personality disorder are reviewed, and it is concluded that they are, albeit unintentionally, oppressive. It is demonstrated how a critical examination of the concept of recovery opens the possibility for delivering care in a fundamentally different way. Grounded in the underlying assumptions of recovery and interpretive phenomenological research, a proposal that moves beyond recovery toward developing and disseminating a practical theory of recovering is presented.