Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-75dct Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-24T14:41:41.324Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Insight and psychosis: a social perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Sonia Johnson  and
Martin Orrell
Sonia Johnson*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University College Medical School, London
Martin Orrell
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University College Medical School, London
*
1 Address for correspondence: Dr Sonia Johnson, Maudsley Continuing Care Study, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The last 5 years have seen a resurgence of interest in insight, with better definitions and operationalizations of the concept. However, recent work has paid little attention to the ways in which patients' understanding of their illnesses may be shaped by perceptions of mental illness and treatment prevailing in their cultures and social groups. We review work by social scientists on cultural and social variations in lay perceptions of mental illness and on the stigma attached to mental illness, and argue that these varying views are likely to be one of the influences on insight, requiring further exploration in research on this subject.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , May 1995 , pp. 515 - 520
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amador, X. F., Strauss, D. H., Yale, S. A. & Gorman, J. M. (1991). Awareness of illness in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 17, 113–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bentinck, C. (1967). Opinions about mental illness held by patients and relatives. Family Process 6, 193–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhughra, D. (1989). Attitudes towards mental illness. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 80, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, A. (1990). Insight and psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry 156, 798–808.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
David, A., Buchanan, A., Reed, A. & Almeida, O. (1992). The assessment of insight in psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry 161, 599–602.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Edgerton, R. B. & Karno, M. (1971). Mexican-American bilingualism and the perception of mental illness. Archives of General Psychiatry 24, 286–290.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eisenbruch, M. (1990). Classification of natural and supernatural causes of mental distress: development of a mental distress explanatory questionnaire. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 178, 712–719.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giovannoni, J. M. & Ullman, L. P. (1963). Concepts of mental health held by psychiatric patients. Journal of Clinical Psychology 19, 398–400.3.0.CO;2-0>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums. Anchor Books: New York.Google Scholar
Greenfeld, D., Strauss, J. S., Bowers, M. B. & Mandelkern, M. (1989). Insight and interpretation of illness in recovery from psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin 15, 245–252.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jodelet, D. (1991). Madness and Social Representations. (Translated by Pownall, T..) Harvester Wheatsheaf: New York.Google Scholar
Lally, S. J. (1989). Does being in here mean there is something wrong with me? Schizophrenia Bulletin 15, 253–265.Google Scholar
Lewis, A. (1934). The psychopathology of insight. British Journal of Medical Psychology 14, 332–348.Google Scholar
Manis, M., Houts, P. S. & Blake, J. B. (1963). Beliefs about mental illness as a function of psychiatric illness and psychiatric hospitalisation. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 67, 226–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markova, I. S. & Berrios, G. E. (1992). The meaning of insight in clinical psychiatry. British Journal of Psychiatry 160, 850–860.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moscovici, S. (1961). La Psychanalyse: Son Image el Son Publique. Presses Universitaires de France: Paris.Google Scholar
Parra, F. & So, Y.-C. (1983). The changing perceptions of mental illness in a Mexican-American community. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 29, 95–100.Google Scholar
Perkins, R. & Moodley, P. (1993 a). The arrogance of insight. Psychiatric Bulletin 17, 233–234.Google Scholar
Perkins, R. E. & Moodley, P. (1993 b). Perceptions of problems in psychiatric in-patients: denial, race and service usage. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 28, 189–193.Google Scholar
Rabkin, J. (1972). Opinions about mental illness: a review of the literature. Psychological Bulletin 77, 153–171.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scheff, T. (1966). Being Mentally Ill. Aldine Publishing Company: Chicago.Google Scholar
Silvana de Rosa, A. M. (1987). The social representations of mental illness in children and adults. In Current Issues in European Social Psychology: Volume Two (ed. Doise, W. and Moscovici, S.), pp. 47–138. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
Sue, S., Wagner, N., Davis, J. A.Margullis, C. & Lew, L. (1976). Conceptions of mental illness among Asian and Caucasian-American students. Psychological Reports 38, 703–708.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townsend, J. M. (1975). Cultural conceptions and mental illness: a controlled comparison of Germany and America. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 160, 409–421.Google Scholar