Insight in Psychiatry

Questions concerning the nature of insight in patients with mental illness have long interested clinicians. To what extent can patients understand their disorder? Can insight predict problems? Is impaired insight determined by the illness alone? This book examines the problems and presents a new model for understanding insight.

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Questions concerning the nature of insight in patients with mental illness have interested clinicians for a long time. To what extent can patients understand disorders which affect their mental function? Does insight carry a prognostic value? Is impaired insight determined by the illness or are other factors important? Despite considerable research examining insight in patients with psychoses, non-psychotic disorders and chronic organic brain syndromes, results are inconclusive and insight remains a source of some mystification. Ivana S. Marková examines the problems involved in studying insight in patients with mental illness in order to provide a clearer understanding of the factors that determine its clinical manifestation. She puts forward a new model to illustrate the relationship between different components of insight in theoretical and clinical terms, and points to directions for future research.