Psychosis: Encyclopedia II - Psychosis - Psychotic experience

Psychosis - Psychotic experience

A psychotic episode can be significantly coloured by mood. For example, people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of depression may experience persecutory or self-blaming delusions or hallucinations, while people experiencing a psychotic episode in the context of mania may form grandiose delusions or have an experience of deep religious significance.

Although usually distressing and regarded as an illness process, some people who experience psychosis find beneficial aspects and value the experience or revelations that stem from it.

Psychosis - Hallucinations

Hallucinations are defined as sensory perception in the absence of external stimuli. They are different from illusions, which are the misperception of external stimuli. Hallucinations may occur in any of the five senses and take on almost any form, which may include simple sensations (such as lights, colours, tastes, smells) to more meaningful experiences such as seeing and interacting with fully formed animals and people, hearing voices and complex tactile sensations.

Auditory hallucinations, particularly the experience of hearing voices, are a common and often prominent feature of psychosis. Hallucinated voices may talk about, or to the person, and may involve several speakers with distinct personas. Auditory hallucinations tend to be particularly distressing when they are derogatory, commanding or preoccupying. However, the experience of hearing voices need not always be a negative one, as outlined by the Hearing Voices Movement informed by the research of Prof. Marius Romme.

Psychosis - Delusions and paranoia

Psychosis may involve delusional or paranoid beliefs. Karl Jaspers classified psychotic delusions into primary and secondary types. Primary delusions are defined as arising out-of-the-blue and not being comprehensible in terms of normal mental processes, whereas secondary delusions may be understood as being influenced by the person's background or current situation.

Psychosis - Thought disorder

Thought disorder describes an underlying disturbance to conscious thought and is classified largely by its effects on speech and writing. Affected persons may show pressure of speech (speaking incessantly and quickly), derailment or flight of ideas (switching topic mid-sentence or inappropriately), thought blocking, and rhyming or punning.

Psychosis - Lack of insight

One important and puzzling feature of psychosis is usually an accompanying lack of insight into the unusual, strange or bizarre nature of the person's experience or behaviour. Even in the case of an acute psychosis, sufferers may seem completely unaware that their vivid hallucinations and impossible delusions are in any way unrealistic. This is not an absolute; however, insight can vary between individuals and throughout the duration of the psychotic episode.

In some cases, particularly with auditory and visual hallucinations, the patient has good insight and this makes the psychotic experience even more terrifying in that the patient realizes that he or she should not be hearing voices, but does.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Psychotic experience", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki