What Is Insight Or “awareness “?
Insight is an English term that is used in psychology to define the moment in which we become aware of something. We can have a revelation about our problems (or a solution for any of them), our moral state, our emotions, our thoughts, etc.
Often we experience a series of psychological states without realizing it. We feel feelings of discomfort or well-being but we do not know how to clearly differentiate our feelings. Once we are able to understand our emotions, we know how to act and we are willing to start moving forward.
So, with the insight , the person finally captures the truth and understands the “revelation”. This can happen suddenly, after a long work on oneself, or with the help of adapted techniques.
Definitions of insight throughout history
Psychology of form
Gestalt psychology refers to the ability to capture the relationship between all aspects of a problem in order to meet the requirements of the goal. This presupposes reorganizing the elements of the problematic situation and consequently solving the problem (R. Mayer, 1986).
Psychodynamic psychology
From the psycho-dynamic perspective, insight would correspond to the awareness of unconscious conflicts and the adequate understanding of them as the basis of self-knowledge. The insight would give its name to the analytical treatment process allowing the individual to enter the automatic nature of the conflict.
This connection produces a new vision, a new relationship with mental contents that were previously not understandable. This produces a significant change in the experience. With insight, we would achieve a more sophisticated understanding of our reality in the light of a new context. According to Sigmund Freud, this would correspond to the conscious recovery of repressed (unconscious) memories (E. Erikson, 1979).
Cognitive-behavioral psychology
In this current, insight (as a cognitive phenomenon) appears in individuals unexpectedly or suddenly as a response to a specific situation. These would be styles of confrontation or cognitive schemas different from the ones we had and which were not sufficient to solve our problems. Thanks to the insight , we would discover a new way of approaching the worries.
Types and characteristics of insight
We can distinguish three types of insight:
- Intellectual insight : it appears rationally. It is evidence of intellectual understanding of something, but not of emotional and operational knowledge about a situation.
- Insight emotional or visceral: it corresponds to the one that provides a clear awareness, understanding and the deepest sense of being vis-a-vis the direction of personal behavior. In addition, it would help bring positive personality changes to life.
- Insight structural: it is the conscious or unconscious knowledge of the person who acquires, uses and plans through the union structures.
Note that the insight:
- Involves a mostly unconscious process
- Usually occurs suddenly
- Provides understanding of an unresolved or previously non-existent situation, issue or learning
- Leads to a greater level of situational awareness and understanding
Insight: the eureka of Psychology
Having the ability to insight or the facility to conduct insight comes down to discovering that what happens to us has a name and that we can do something about it.
Achieving insight allows us to acquire a sense of control which has a direct bearing on our confidence. The sense of control it provides us with is due to getting a proper explanation of our problems. In addition, it provides us with relief and allows us to attempt to find a solution. Insight opens the door to hope in order to get out of the breach in which we find ourselves.
Our thoughts Intuition and instinct do not refer to the same ability. Read this article and find out the differences between the two!
