Huang, AiLin2019-09-252019-09-252011-03-032010-071173-2571http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12424/176632Yuli Veterans Hospital (YVH) is located in the remote Yuli, the mid-point of East Rift Valley in Taiwan. Since its establishment YVH has been taking care of the most disadvantaged mentally ill from all over Taiwan. The research team applied narrative identification method to approach 50 persons with schizophrenia who stayed in YVH. We managed to understand their life history and their subjective experiences of mental illness. The persons who agreed to interview were clinically insightful to their illness. According to the literatures, the insight into mental illness is helpful to early treatment, the implementation of community and vocational rehabilitation, and hence the better recovery outcome. Through the interviews we found the most of the persons with schizophrenia had experienced the presence of ―not-me‖ at the initial stage of their illness. Oftentimes the ―not-me‖ experiences are quite a bit like the hallucinations or uncontrollable mood swings in psychiatryengWith permission of the license/copyright holderempowermentpsychiatric ethicsBioethicsMedical ethicsHealth ethicsArticle