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Psychosis and identity: Alteration or loss?
Author(s) -
Gergel Tania,
Iacoponi Eduardo
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of evaluation in clinical practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.737
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2753
pISSN - 1356-1294
DOI - 10.1111/jep.12768
Subject(s) - psychosis , identity (music) , perspective (graphical) , context (archaeology) , psychology , psychotherapist , epistemology , psychoanalysis , psychiatry , philosophy , computer science , aesthetics , paleontology , artificial intelligence , biology
The onset of psychotic disorders often brings major changes to an individual, which, for some, are never fully reversed and remain a dominant force. Despite such changes, the individual still experiences themselves as a continuous person and must find some way to assimilate these shifts into their self‐concept. From a philosophical perspective, the various models of continuing identity all depend upon some notion of fundamental stability, which seems a poor fit for the trajectory associated with psychotic disorders. This article will explore, in more depth, how the transitions that accompany psychotic disorders present a challenge to conventional and philosophical notions of selfhood. If we are not simply to judge psychotic disorders as bringing about a loss of selfhood, we will need an alternative model of identity to use in this context.