Insight in Psychosis: An Integrated Perspective

Abstract

Insight in psychosis is a multidimensional concept with each component being influenced by various biological, individual and cultural factors. The study and understanding of such a concept needs to be done at various levels and with needed emphasis on the personal and interpersonal aspects of the people suffering with psychotic disorders, as this is routinely neglected in the clinical discourse in favor of reductionist biological models. An adequate understanding of the nature of human person should undergird a complex effort like the inquiry into the higher concepts of human experience such as delusion and insight into illness, which in turn should guide the therapeutic, administrative and legal management of people with psychotic illness.

The Insight of Patients and Their Parents Differ in the Early Phase of Psychosis

“…The ability of a person to reflect upon his illness is called insight into illness [1]. Clinically insight is a multifaceted phenomenon related to acceptance of one's condition as being psychiatrically ill, recognition of symptoms as pathological, recognition of the social consequences of illness and treatment acceptance [2].…”