Thoughtful Thursday: Insight

This will be the last Thoughtful Thursday post as mentioned in this thread.

Insight is when we suddenly find a clear solution to a problem. In psychotherapy, it refers to the “awareness of underlying sources of emotional, cognitive, or behavioral responses and difficulties in oneself or another person.” (APA, n.d.) In this thread, I will be talking about insight in terms of awareness.

Insight levels can vary- not all of us are aware of our internal world to the same extent. For instance, a person might say they were unable to go out because of a last-minute change that annoyed them. Now, if this person had insight, they might consider the deeper cause of not wanting to go out, “I don't like how my feelings were not considered when a change like this was made” then go on to “this might be an assumption, and anyway, things like this happen sometimes, am I perhaps overreacting?”. This allows the individual to take a different approach to the situation and they may then be able to take more helpful behaviours- in this example, could be talking about it or going out anyway. So insight is a component in our thought processes that reflects in our emotions as well as behaviour.

Personality disorders tend to be marked by a lack of insight because most of them are largely ego-syntonic. Ego-syntonic is when behaviour or feelings are seen as consistent with beliefs and will. Ego-dystonic is when they’re seen as inconsistent. So if a person is perfectionistic and finds no problem with it, it is ego-syntonic. If a person lashes out at their partner and thinks that they overreacted, it is ego-dystonic. Hence, the focus here is on the beliefs and will where insight is possible.

Insight can be increased. Most forms of therapy tend to focus on eliciting insight, even if the content of the insight can vary, like unconscious forces (psychodynamic, psychoanalytic) or thought processes in relation to interpretations (CBT). Some try to take a passive approach by allowing the client to gain insight by themselves by providing a conducive environment (Client-Centred Therapy).

Insight can be increased by self as well. A lot of activities we do allow us to increase insight. Reading books, watching movies or shows, observing others, getting feedback, and so on. Anything can be a source of insight as long as we remain receptive to it by having an open mind. Unfortunately, we tend to have defences that sometimes keep us from accepting helpful information. Ex- “He thinks I am selfish? He is selfish, not me!” Instead, another approach could be “What might lead him to think I am selfish?” Here, information is not seen as an attack or taken personally. The aim is to understand and gain insight. Insight can be facilitated by journaling- writing down about the event and its occurrences sometime after the event and reflecting on it later.

Questions

Q1. What is a situation where your level of insight influenced how you responded?

Q2. Any other thoughts about the topic?

References

APA. (n.d.). APA Dictionary of Psychology. Dictionary.apa.org. https://dictionary.apa.org/insight

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