Thought in disarray
Oxford University Press eBooks April 1, 2009 DOI: 10.1093/med/9780199237548.003.0005 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that the norms governing thought are determined intersubjectively and that correctly knowing one's place in the world is a complex cognitive attainment, not merely a product of introspection. Contends that psychotic thinkers lack the integrity of self and cognition needed for that achievement, and that insight, delusion, and hallucination illuminate fundamental biological mechanisms affecting joint attention and social perception. |
Abstract
The psychotic disorders pose the problem of rationality and normality in thought and the way in which we should understand them. The norms governing thought are determined in the intersubjective context in which mental content is defined, and they create cognitive skills in an individual that are used in attunement to the world and judgements about oneself. That analysis informs an interpretation of insight, delusion, and hallucination as phenomena of importance in understanding the fundamental biological mechanisms affecting conjoint attention and social perception and their relation to phenomenological approaches to the psychoses. Correctly knowing one's place in the world is a complex cognitive attainment, not merely an immediate product of introspection, and psychotic thinkers lack the integrity of self and cognition needed for that achievement so that they display a fortiori many things we tend to overlook in philosophical thinking about the psyche.