Psychiatria pre prax 4/2013

Psychosis – search for the subjective sense

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the subjective experience of illness in patients, not only in psychiatry. Most of the contemporary research has focused on the negative aspects of the disease, side effects of medication, reduced quality of life and so forth. Until now, a questionnaire seeking to identify the potentially positive aspects of psychosis has yet to be created. Yet research on post-traumatic changes has shown that people who have survived stressful life situations, such as a life-threatening illness can benefit from the experience (2, 10, 14, 16). The long-term psychiatric tradition of focusing on deficit-oriented ted approaches may be responsible for the general lack of interest in the coping strategies of psychosis, especially a sense of psychosis (6). This article presents a different view of psychotic illness, provides a brief introduction to the new questionnaire seeking to detect the subjective sense of psychosis and presents some of the theoretical background that has inspired the authors of the new questionnaire.

Keywords: subjective sense in psychosis, general resistence resources, sense of coherence.