[pachyderm]

British Psychological Association released a remarkable document entitled “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia.” Its authors say that hearing voices and feeling paranoid are common experiences, and are often a reaction to trauma, abuse or deprivation: “Calling them symptoms of mental illness, psychosis or schizophrenia is only one way of thinking about them, with advantages and disadvantages.”

Not every professional disparages this viewpoint:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/op...ml?ref=opinion

pachyderm, thanks for posting this.

I agree with the BPA that having a premise that psychosis is a mental illness is flawed reasoning. For example, I have been told by several psychiatrists that I have psychosis simply because I exhibited thoughts that they determined were delusional (grandeur, inference, persecution).

Currently my psychiatrist is retreating from her diagnosis of psychosis and saying that maybe my thoughts are reality based.

[Onward2wards]

My current belief is that so called "Abnormal Psychology" is experienced by so many people at least in transient and diluted form, that it is better termed "Common psychology that is subjectively distressing". Put in those terms, a GUIDE through the experience would be more effective than compartmentalizing it as a "disorder" per se? All disorders are considered normal processes pushed beyond a certain (and maybe even somewhat arbitrary) limit.

[Nammu]

Great article, maybe post it in the how do we improve MI thread too. This is a great viewpoint for reimagining how everyone including doctors see MI.