Residents Experience Mind's Continuum

A phone rings once while you are in the shower. You turn off the water, dry off, and go to the phone—no one is there.

Did someone call and hang up? Did you only imagine the ring, when it was really the shower water masking some other sound? Is the phone malfunctioning?

The momentary doubt this scenario might invoke in the“ ordinary” mind—what's real? what isn't?—is a prosaic illustration of how the distortions of psychosis can be viewed as only a more eccentric version of normal perceptual experience (see Original article: Psychosis, Ordinary Thinking Not Distant Relatives).

Now imagine that once you are out of the shower, the phone rings again—once—and no one is on the line. It continues to do so throughout the afternoon and evening. When you call the phone company, you are told there is no problem with the phone line. In time you notice that the phone appears to ring with greater frequency when you are standing by the kitchen window where your neighbor can see you.

At what point do you begin to distrust your own senses? At what point do you begin to concoct explanations of sinister intent?

This “thought exercise” was one of several presented by psychiatrist Michael Garrett, M.D., during a workshop for educators at APA's 2007 Institute on Psychiatric Services (see article at left). Garrett has used the exercise and others in teaching residents and medical students about the continuum between the ordinary mind and psychosis.

The exercises are described in an article by Garrett and colleagues in the journal Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice, titled “Normalizing Psychotic Symptoms” (December 2006).

An abstract of the article is posted at<www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpsoc/paptrap>.