**Section 3 Social Point of View 89**

Chapter 5 **Insight in Psychosis: An Integrated Perspective 91** Starlin Vijay Mythri and Johann Alex Ebenezer

Preface

ical symptoms and in maintaining mental health.

The awareness that psychotic suffering can no longer be considered a disorder that can't be treated is very important for this book. This is why it's very important to deepen the research on its genesis and treatment in the most complete and updated way possible. As Oya Mortan Sevi recalls, compared to the past, now we are also aware of the existence of a continuity among normal beliefs, anomalous experiences and psychotic symptoms: it is a more wide‐ spread phenomenon than what was thought decades ago. In fact, recent research points out that even people considered healthy may manifest mild psychotic symptoms. This creates a growing social interest in this issue, being aware of the fact that psychosis involves a greater part of the population than was previously believed. As Lui Unterrassner emphasizes in his contribution, the interest for the study of subclinical psychosis has now increased, as it could provide critical information on the mechanisms that are involved in the exacerbation of subclin‐

In this book, Starlin Mythri rightly points out that psychotic manifestation can be a devastating personal experience because of its ability to rob a person of his/her self-determination and control over his/her behavior. In the interpersonal context, it can damage confidence in the relationship and can decrease the familiarity between the healthy person and the person affected, giving rise to negative interpersonal criticism, and this can even lead to a complete loss of the relationship. In the wake of these awarenesses, the relational aspects of psychosis have been investigated in various research, and this is important, because, there is a deep intertwining between the cog‐ nitive and relational aspects, and the research on it must therefore be deepened. There is there‐ fore a greater awareness of the fact that psychosis does not only concern individuals, but also their families, as well as the society in which they live: it was therefore essential to take into consideration the psycho-social implications of this disease. Eduardo García-Laredo emphasiz‐ es that research on psychosis highlights the importance of psychosocial factors and family fac‐ tors. Just as we must not neglect the biological aspects, as Abdulwakeel Ayokun-nun Ajao points out: there are indeed interesting perspectives on the new approaches to cure the disease. From what has been mentioned, it is evident how this book adopts a perspective that respects the complexity of the human person and his/her relationships; it has been highlighted that the central themes in psychotic manifestations and in patient care are the existential anxieties (such as the preoccupation of maintaining one's own identity), find meaning in one's life experience, maintain hope, and for this reason, the assistance to the psychotic person and the care path‐ ways that support the family must be articulated while taking into consideration, in a global manner, all the dimensions of human existence, to be effective and to truly meet the needs of those who suffer. This perspective today finds its roots when George Engel introduced the term "Biopsychosocial Approach" as a privileged way to understand the processes of health and dis‐ ease along the entire existential path and to articulate forms of care. The biopsychosocial model is inspired by the paradigm of complexity, in clear contrast to biomedical reductionism, as well as to the hierarchization of the sciences. It adopts the perspective of the general systems theory developed by Von Bertalanffy [5], which considers a set of interrelated events as a system, which manifests specific functions and properties depending on the level to which it belongs
