Insight, Delusion, and Belief

The concepts of insight and delusion present philosophical problems even though they remain clinically useful. However, these concepts are usually defined against the background of traditional empiricism or rationalism, which have difficulties in accounting for normal human thought. I outline a Wittgensteinian approach that puts knowledge in an interpersonal and practical framework. The resulting account accommodates a number of the phenomenological features of self-knowledge in mental disorder. It also gives an entrée into the vulnerabilities of thought to social and interpersonal influences, even though it does not suggest a "social construct" view of mental disorders.