This paper explores the essential features of recovery and the need for an existential approach in psychiatry. The biopsychosocial model often fails to sufficiently validate the existential suffering of patients. We review the major principles of recovery and the philosophical and psychiatric principles of existentialism. The ontological or intrinsic existential issues of death, isolation, freedom and meaninglessness are described and their manifestations are explored in clinical syndromes. When ultimate existential concerns are recognised, patients have an opportunity to understand their life on a deeper level that is not defined as a medical disorder but as a part of human existence. Understanding that existential concerns underlie a great deal of human behaviour helps to free patients from the stigma of psychiatric labels. An existential approach is a humanistic way toward recovery.
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