Metacognition and Severe Adult Mental Disorders

Book excerpt: Many adults who experience severe mental illness also suffer from deficits in metacognition - put simply, thinking about one’s own thought processes - limiting their abilities to recognize, express and manage naturally occurring painful emotions and routine social problems as well as to fathom the intentions of others. This book presents an overview of the field, showing how current research can inform clinical practice. An international range of expert contributors provide chapters which look at the role of metacognitive deficit in personality disorders, schizophrenia, and mood disorders, and the implications for future psychotherapeutic treatment. Divided into three parts, areas covered include: how metacognitive deficits may arise and the different forms they might take the psychopathology of metacognition in different forms of mental illness whether specific deficits in metacognition might help us understand the difficulties seen in differing forms of severe mental illness. Offering varying perspectives and including a wealth of clinical material, this book will be of great interest to all mental health professionals, researchers and practitioners.