ON INSIGHT AND PSYCHOSIS - DISCUSSION PAPER

The concept of insight into psychosis has received scant attention in the psychiatric literature. Various types of insight are described after drawing on such sources as phenomenology, clinical observation and experimental psychology. It is proposed that insight is far from an all or none phenomenon but comprises three overlapping dimensions, namely, the recognition that one has a mental illness, compliance with treatment and the ability to re-label unusual mental events (delusions and hallucinations) as pathological.