Introduction To The Paper Titled:
Insight: Appreciation As A Process Of Recognition,
A Hermeneutic Format For The Interpretation of Statements
Made By Psychotic Individuals, and,
Authenticity In Value Re-Creation

	This paper is an introduction to a more lengthy paper. In this introduction I will attempt to use a minimum of technical expressions. (However, those paragraphs that have a technical complexion will be prefixed by an * and can be avoided. Those sections in brackets can also be treated in the same manner).
	To begin with I will examine the nature of apparently bizarre statements and in the process offer a method for how we might go about an interpretation of this type of text. Then I will look at the nature of insight as I would wish to model it. A philosophical problem will then be introduced, namely, how is it possible for a psychotic person with a loss of abstract reasoning to express themselves through a rich, wide ranging panorama of metaphor? A provisional solution will be proposed in the resolution of this puzzle. Continuing, I will then examine the nature of value. A distinction will be made between authentic value and inauthentic value. In a practical application of this distinction I will also examine the loss and recovery of authenticity in the light of my interpretation of this phenomenon. Lastly, I would like to examine the role played by repetition in the performance of intentional processes (and, by implication, defects in this aspect of intentionality).

1. The Nature Of Bizarre Statements

	Taken out of context any statement might appear bizarre. On the other hand, whether in context or out of context, some statements from their analysis alone appear bizarre. Either way the experience of bizarreness is an experience of incongruity in some form or other. Internally or contextually the statement, or set of statements, do not seem to make perfect sense. On the other hand this text cannot be dismissed as completely senseless if segments of that text seem to make some sense. In a philosophical mode let me ask what major preconditions must be in place that would allow a text to make some degree of sense in its being read and therein interpreted?
*	To begin with I would like to define a text as any form of intentional behaviour that leaves an imprint upon the fabric of the world, this trace being treated as an intentional deposit. Intentional deposits taking the form of either non-linguistic texts and/or linguistic texts. E.g., I see a certain event unfold. My memory records this event in the form of a memory trace which at the level of brain chemistry is non-linguistic. This event is recalled and translated into speech, this utterance being heard as a linguistic phenomenon and recorded on a piece of paper also in the form of a linguistic text. In recalling this moment of history my body is also transmitting a text, either expressing, or not trying to express, emotions that might be happy or sad, etc. In our textual analysis of statements made by psychotic individuals we should try to observe both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects of textuality and try to infer the general nature of their interrelationship and to what degree there is a harmonious concordance between these two fundamental aspects of textuality (i.e., the verbal and the non-verbal).
	Once a text is formulated and emitted, on reception how is it interpreted? It would appear that a set of socially shared conventions must first be in place in order to de-encode that which by convention was encoded in the first place. It would seem reasonable to believe that even to formulate a text some set or sets of social conventions, some genre or mix of genre, must be adopted and then adapted to the present task to hand. If I am going to write someone a letter I must first adopt the recognized conventions for writing a letter, a set of conventions, moreover, in keeping with the `type' of letter I wish to write. On receipt of this letter a superficial inspection should inform the reader whether it was a business letter, a love letter, a letter between friends, etc. 
	This analysis accepted it follows that if someone does not adhere too well to the adoption and adaptation of conventions the resulting text is going to strike the reader as out of place, inappropriate, strange or, perhaps, as just bizarre.
	This mould into which out texts are metaphorically poured I will define as the text's meta-text. It stands to reason that without a meta-text there could be no textual expression, and, without some awareness of the conventions adopted and adapted there could be no reading of that text. Therefore a text may strike us as `bizarre' for a certain number of reasons, namely, defects in the writing, transmission and/or reading of that text. It stands to reason that if the meta-text is incorrectly appropriated by the `writer' of that text and/or incorrectly re-appropriated by the `reader' of that text then that text is going to be experienced by the reader of that text as defective in some form or other, e.g., strange, unclear, inconsistent, muddled, disconnected, bizarre, etc. Obviously the inappropriate use of social conventions realizes a text that is relatively less transparent. Note however that a text can be neither absolutely transparent nor absolutely opaque. Even though a text may be perfectly obvious in its intent the sheer possibility of doubt renders it non-absolutely transparent. For all we know that text might be in some form of code whose true significance for the intended writer/reader cannot be found on its overt surface. On the other hand a text can never be absolutely opaque. Even in a foreign language we recognize its apparent linguistic intent to apparently conform to some set or other of social conventions. Hence it follows that defective adoption and adaptation of this meta-textual dimension in the writing of a text is going to result in the presentation of a defective text, a text that may well appear as bizarre to a reader that attempts to interpret, and therein read, that text.
	Some time ago I was supervising the bathing of some patients when one of them asked me if `I had seen any bright stars?' It was during the day inside a room with no clear windows and I obviously found the question quite bizarre. Not knowing what this person really wanted I asked what they meant by that question. This person replied that they were looking for some `Bright Stars' which as it turned out was the name of the latest brand of the shampoo being used by this hospital. What basically this patient was after was some shampoo. In my opinion their text was not properly formulated and certainly insufficiently contextualized. If they had stated they wanted some shampoo called Bright Stars then this text would not have appeared as initially bizarre. This anecdote also demonstrates that once the conventions are determined texts may no longer appear as bizarre or at least as bizarre as they were first experienced.
	Recently a patient told me that we were poisoning him with "goblin poison." Each week he received his modecate injection. A day or two after his latest injection he volunteered this information, adding "that everyone knew this." Now it is not impossible that the hospital could have been poisoning him, e.g., by mistake, by design, etc. But could the hospital actually be giving him goblin poison? If this text occurred in a children's fairy story it might not seem so bizarre. However, as it stands this text, from analysis alone, given our current beliefs about goblins and their ilk, would most likely be treated as bizarre. This does not mean we should dismiss it. To be accepted as informative it certainly cannot be read and taken literally. Rather, it could be seen as indirectly telling us something about the writer of that text. Obviously, the writer of that text is also not taking his text literally. Would you go to hospital, expose some skin above some substantial muscular region in order to accept medication by injection that you thought was really poison?!
	Not so long ago another patient told one of the staff that they were no longer their former self, that all you saw was only a shell. How might this type of text be interpreted?
	To interpret this text we need to know by what set of conventions this text was encoded. Obviously, this set of conventions surrounds and determines how the use of the sole metaphor embedded in this text is meant to be read. In our daily lives from time to time we become re-acquainted with the phenomenon of shells, e.g., egg-shells, sea-shells, etc. The medical-psychiatric context of this utterance, internal evidence and other aspects of this text suggest that certain aspects of this phenomenology of shells are being promoted whilst at the same time other aspects of this phenomenology are being discounted or suppressed. A literal interpretation of this metaphor would not do justice to the apparent use of this metaphor. Does the utterer of this statement really believer he is merely a shell; only skin and hair? On the other hand a more connotational reading of this utterance would suggest a reading along the following lines, namely, that this person is telling us that although he may look real he, himself, is describing how he doesn't feel real, an historical process that leaves now only a shell of his former self... Implicit in such a statement are feelings of unreality, a sense of emptiness, a period of time in which this feeling manifested itself, that this type of self-interpretation is indicating some sense of personal alienation, etc.
	It is my belief that it is the metaphor in the text, or at least in the meta-text, that allows us to interpret that text. In the use of overt metaphor, metaphorical devices presented in the text itself, the meta-text covertly manipulates that metaphorical field as to how that device is ostensively meant to operate. Suppressing certain analogical features, promoting other aspects, creating and re-creating cross connections and associations, etc.
	In a text with no overt metaphor we must assume its significance is generated from overt metaphor in the meta-text and that covert manipulation of that (relatively covert) metaphorical device is conducted from the level of the meta-metatext. E.g., a shopping list has no overt metaphor in its text but the very genre of the `shopping-list' itself operates as a type of metaphor, a form of listing for a certain type of reason, namely, to find, buy and take home certain required items, e.g., groceries, etc.
	Moreover, from this example, we also learn that metaphorical devices are entertained either in a direct denotative sense, or literally, or, in an indirect connotational sense, or non-literally. In the latter orientation associations are evoked rather than directly invoked (either through an overt analogical modeling and/or a referential naming of the phenomenon under focus; the former using a pre-prepared critical, conventional phenomenology of the respective metaphor and the latter using an implicit metaphorical mapping of that regional field of discourse. In this regard even our spatial and temporal perception of the world is modeled metaphorically and complexly analogued accordingly, all reference to references (names) using forms of covert metaphorical mapping foundationally determined by the human constitution and there upon constructed by conventional means with varying degrees of phenomenological-hermeneutical conformity).
	To complicate the picture we have certain natural limitations imposed upon the evocative use of metaphor. Metaphorical processes are analogical, i.e., not literally isomorphic or equivalent. When someone says `the world is like a dream' they mean that `the world is both like a dream and not like a dream' otherwise they would have said that the world is a dream and only just a dream. This limitation implying that metaphors can only be taken so far before breaking down, creating on these margins degrees of counter-sense and non-sense, etc. The formulation of texts with relatively low degrees of consistency, coherence, internal and contextual harmonization, etc., deconstructing relatively more easily when leaned upon, taken to task, made to reveal their limits when treated or `mis-treated' under extreme conditions, etc.
	Also complicating the picture is the use of multiple metaphors with varying degrees of interrelational harmonization in both horizontal and vertical levels of organizational complexity. (Indeed, a deeper explication of metaphorical structural-functioning must involve some form of reference to core metaphor that more closely analogue distinctive phenomenological aspects of our embodied-physiological constitution. Then, from a thematizational reduplication of the overall field of this inner language of the metaphor emerges higher orders of performance subject to greater degrees of conventional re-determination and, thereby, more amenable to the type of explication herein outlined).
	In the following text we have a selected set of textual fragments reported in their order of emission as uttered by a disturbed, female patient who had been found, by the police, wandering naked on a busy street. This series of statements being recorded on her initial assessment for admission. Let us use this analysis of metaphor just sketched out to see if we can make some degree of sense of what otherwise would appear to be a very bizarre series of statements.
	"I thought I was having someone else's babies. I thought I was turning into Madonna. I was taking my clothes off, fleecing myself. I was ethnically cleansing myself. I was a little lamb. It's disgusting, dirty to eat meat. I did it for God. That's all I had to believe in. I was depressed, anxious, lonely, confused. It's all too freaky from the aeroplane crash. I don't want to live like this."
	The religious element in this text suggests the extreme need for the restoration of lost value, a sense of self-value lost in the psychic dis-integration experienced by this person whilst in this psychotic state.
	Some degree of self-insight is also evident, e.g., the statement, "I was depressed, anxious, lonely, confused," appears to indicate that this person recognizes some degree of psychological disturbance.
	All pervading is a sense of immanent catastrophe that is or will be experienced by this person along with a strong, almost explicit, undercurrent that this is for some religious purpose or reason. The metaphor of the lamb suggests a sense of sacrifice in the context of a process of purification as witnessed in the mis-use of the expression "ethnic cleansing."
	By no account is this text perfectly, or adequately, transparent after analysis. The first sentence may suggest some real or imagined sexual disturbance or event? Also present is a sense of self-transformation with a possible play on words in the use of the expression "Madonna?"
	An element of association also enters into this text. A large number of informational units are squeezed in with little repetition. A process of connotational association seems to be the only link in this series of bizarre statements except for the possible reality of the underlying condition being connotationally analogued. E.g., her explanations for her lack of attire, e.g., being Madonna, fleecing herself, like a little lamb, ethnic cleansing, etc. Generally, there are many metaphor, metaphorical interconnections at work in this complex text. However, enough has been said on this subject. A more successful method would be to ask this person herself if she could remember the nature of her intentional motivation behind the emission of these statements.
	Generally, therefore, to make some sense of an apparently bizarre text, or, for that matter, to make sense of any text, we need to adopt this methodology centered on metaphor and adapt it to the task to hand. Of course the most probable path of least resistance to take in this quest of interpretation is to ask the person themselves who uttered this series of comments to comment directly upon the intentional motivation behind their previous emitted formulations of text if that is possible for then to do retrospectively. Not much light might be cast upon an intrinsically bizarre text, however, all motivation is intentionally directed and to that extent information that focuses on the covert functioning of the metaphor in a text, or meta-text, must be of some value. With respect to statements uttered by psychotic individuals we might also well ask what degree of insight is actually in evidence if at all? 

2. The Nature of Insight

	It is my belief, short of an absolute breakdown in the psyche's own sense of self-organization, that there can be no absolute loss of self-insight. Moreover, this fact can be shown from a critical (hermeneutical) analysis of textual emissions themselves. When processes of textual behaviour do not conform to the manner they self-advertise themselves under then we find such texts are more easily self-deconstructed, needing less effort to complete this task for us. A number of (hermeneutic) techniques can be used to demonstrate the presence of some form, and degree, of insight. 
	Previously, I discussed briefly the belief expressed by a male patient that he was being injected with "goblin poison." Although such a belief was announced, and this belief was disturbing for this person to contemplate, he still on a weekly basis turned up at the hospital for the regular administering of this medication. Obviously, the left hand was undoing what the right hand was setting out to achieve.
	Other techniques involve the discovery and stressing of disconcerting point of anomaly, or `hot spots,' for that patient and finding from the nature of the responses of these people that a raw nerve had been metaphorically struck even if not admitted to. In this light the patient may get angry, refuse to admit to certain inconsistencies, invest a great degree of psychic energy in a re-interpretive harmonization of their statements, etc. Another revealing technique of mine is to ask the patient who has just stated something absurd, or with little ostensive sense, to put themselves in my shoes and then ask themselves "if what they have just said makes sense?" Again the reaction to this reversal of conversational perspective is either an angry response that breaks up and terminates your conversational relationship, or, a partial admission to the effect that their conversation would sound rather "crazy," or, something else to that effect.
	As a general principle some degree of insight is always present and, indirectly, can be demonstrated by the correct use of interpretive devices designed to highlight the direct or indirect revelation of such concealment.
	In a similar vein our `naked lady' was also indirectly reporting considerable degrees of apparent insight. However, be that as it may, what value has this insight when the implications of this insight are not directly recognized? It is all very well to say that we have some money in the bank when we do not seem to recognize the fact that currently being in need of money, and having access to our passbook, and being near to a branch of that bank known to us, that by going to that bank before a certain hour and presenting our passbook, etc., we can obtain some money. It is as if all this information is known to that person but is not properly interrelated and connected. As a consequence this lack of richness in realized interconnections ensures a relative loss in successful and appropriate functioning along with an overall loss in the freedom of that individual to perform as a person from their point of view in this world of social reality (established through meta-textualized conventions).
	Insight, it would appear, takes the form of a direct awareness of the relevant constitutional configuration and implications of a certain situation as flowing from its totality, a totality in turn situated in the context of its own unique situatedness. In essence insight is developed when the structures and functions of a certain text are found to generally conform to the same structures and functions of that situation as correctly located and defined by that text. E.g., if in the midst of a dream I say to myself, "I am dreaming and those objects I see are dream objects," and I am really dreaming then those re-presentations, certainly not representations, are indeed in conformity with that as originally declared. I am insightfully aware that I am dreaming, etc. E.g., if I believe that Canberra is closer to Sydney than Newcastle then any statement made by myself to that effect is strictly, and validly, in conformity with my beliefs even though in actual fact there is not this conformity, in this regard, between my personal beliefs and their socially understood reality. 
*	An important implication of this concept of conformity is the necessary presence of an apparatus for locating a sense of reference in the entire range of logical space, throughout the entire spectrum of all regions of linguistic identity, etc. Basically sense indicates reference, and reference gives sense its particular sense of sense, i.e., its significance or meaning by virtue of its `place' in the total world of universal discourse. This polarity between sense and reference demands that they dialectically aspect each other releasing significance only through their mutual cooperation in the thematization of that relationship between sense-and-reference. 
*	How is this (sense of) reference determined through sense? This locus of conformity is discerned through simple or complex functions of sense, and, this aspect of our equation is determined through an analysis of the relationship between the text and its meta-text, meta-text and meta-metatext, etc., an analysis of the relationship of that textual situation in its situation or context, the relationship between a distinct fragment of the text and the relative totality of that text as a con-text, etc. Essentially, various aspects of the text are in their structural-functions, their schematization in linguistic terms of reference are investigated in depth to see if the substance of the presentation actually appears to coincide with the manner of its presentation, i.e., its vocation, its address, its ostensive semblance and place in the total world of meaning and meaningfulness, etc. In this regard reference is not representational (in some world only seen by the eye of God if that was possible even for divinity) but re-presentational in the sense that in the mind's appropriation, and continual re-appropriation, of a text we set out to fully determine the true psychic location of that logical subject or logical state under thematizational focus. The involvement of a meta-textual dimension implying a inter-subjective social perspective is also being entertained. 
	This concept of conformity is very important because I will claim that authenticity of value only stems from a correct, or valid, appreciation of this perspective upon the relationship entertained by that text in its appropriate textual environment.
	Therefore, the nature of insight, in accordance with this account, is such that when a text is essentially appreciated in the light of its own constitution a process of conformity takes place that allows us to validly impute the relatively true nature of that text along with all implications and associations that, normally, can be connected with the perceived presence of this text. By presence is meant the presentational import of that text as experienced by us in our direct relationship with it and it with us.
	The depth of insight also reflects the degree of gestalt integration, i.e., psychic integrity, entertained by that person. In turn the depth of presence, and thematizational detail, of our intentional object(-states), intentional fields or worlds and our sense(s) of self also reflect this degree of gestalt self-interconnectedness and in turn actually help reconstitute that relationship. A relationship that is directly experienced as a relationship when experienced from within its experienced simulation. This in-sightful experience being discovered through our conformity with that object as recovered from an understanding of the nature of that relationship between the situation in its situatedness, i.e., in a recognition of conformity in this relationship.
*	Moreover, the moment of insight is also experienced in a different psychological manner to other types of experiences, e.g., sensations of pain, images, motor-responses, etc. Essentially, insight is experienced in a process of judgment that is allowed to authentically express itself without too much distortion from prejudices, pre-judgments, a priori attitudes, deluded beliefs, historical processes of mis-interpretation, etc. How is this relative diminishment in distortion actually enacted given that all intentionality is subject to perspective and some degree of (dialectical) indetermination? 
*	The resolution of this question necessitates the invocation of the psychological mechanism of a suspension. A consciously conducted suspension basically involves the conceptual formulation of text and its parallel mirroring through a process of counter-writing. In effect a controlled state of skepticism is introduced in order to neutralize the value of all collectively assembled pre-judgments found relevant to our appreciation of that situation. However, rather than being a destructive, negative process this introduction of prejudicial balance actually allows us to find, if that is possible, a solution in the midst of our current entertainment of that situation in its situatedness. Indeed, to merely ask a question involves us in a state of suspension as indicated. A question is usually of the form `is x actually a or non-a?' In order to ask ourselves this question, and entertain it as a question, a state of suspension is automatically invoked. To properly entertain the question all relevant possibilities in outcome must, in the same period of time, be generally envisaged suspended together in some form or other, to some degree or other. Given such contextual `clothing' the relationship involved in the entertainment of that question is then allowed to respond on the behalf of that relationship. The resolutional response of that relationship effectively taking place through a suspension of that suspension. If the question was left purely in a state of suspension, wherein all identity was held in perfect balance with its counter-identity, we would in effect be trapped in, or locked into, this state of suspension. On the other hand, in a suspension of the suspension, wherein that primary suspension is well-informed about the ostensive nature of that relationship under investigation, that situation is then enabled, or permitted, to declare its true conformational reality, i.e., reveal its natural referential status as constitutionally constructed in the psyche. In such a state the question both interrogates itself and answers itself. The situation in its re-constitution re-locates itself for us and therein we have re-vealed through this act of re-covery the conformational reality of this situation re-presented for us.
*	In a similar manner the structural-functions of the metaphor also operate through the auspices of a suspension. When we say `x is like a' what we really mean is `x is both like a, and, not like a.' In effect we have the form of suspension, a state of balance between the writing of certain identities and the counter-writing of those same identities. In an insightful appreciation of the application of a certain metaphor we have highlighted for us, in the moment of insight, the conformational structural-functions articulated by that metaphorical device, or set of metaphorical devices. Again, the suspended material is unlocked for us through the suspension of that suspension assuming that the primary suspension is adequately well-formed and well-informed, and, that the secondary suspension is properly conducted. Adequate responses flowing effortlessly, spontaneously and appropriately from this authentically-oriented process of judgment conducted from the existential perspective of the simulation of that situation in its situatedness. Authenticity being self-authenticated through the relative lack of distortion realized through the imposition of the well-constructed suspension, and, the self-declaration of validity given the revelation of the confirmed status of its constitutional configuration. Identity being thematized through processes of reductive-analysis and reconstitutional-synthesis and suspended through a balance (in process and content) brought into being through a harmonious interplay between these two polarities. A suspension of the suspension being produced, and reproduced, in a harmonious balance of all three polarities of the reduction, reconstitution and the ongoing suspension of the former.
	The conformity of our intentional object with its true nature taking place in our in depth appreciation of the intentional situation in its relevant fields of operation. Appropriate insight and responses flowing from such appreciation, reproducing an authenticity in value-creation. In our dealings with the `nuts and bolts' of reality as experienced when we deal with a `nut' as a nut and a `bolt' as a bolt, and not otherwise, an authenticity of value automatically flows when we find our experience of this state of affairs conforming to the `true' nature of that being experienced.
	On this subject of insight we should note that all forms of insight are to a certain extent also concealed from us. In the recovering of insight, as a process of recognition, there is also the simultaneous re-covering of insight. In this there is a warning that we should not look at what we are not ready to look at. As already discussed, to a certain extent, all psychotic patients have some form insight only there is a general lack of a recognition of the true state of affairs of their situation in its situatedness. For the psychotic person the promotion of insight on one hand is not necessary, and on the other can be a dangerous affair. As that psychotic state lessens in severity deeper levels of insight will manifest themselves and become directly recognized. In reverse the re-production of insight may diminish the intensity of that psychosis, without doubt a difficult task, but, in a person without adequate degrees of social and psychological support the entire process is fraught with great risk and could lead, e.g., to the suicide of that person through `too much insight,' without doubt the ultimate loss of value both for that person and society. Self-awareness can be a painful experience at the best of times and it may well be better for the world at large if it were to operate with some degree of fantasy, entertain over optimistic hopes and aspirations, adopt a variety of masks, engage in a repertoire of social games, utilize various fruitful fictions about the nature of ourselves and others, etc.

3. A Philosophical Problem

	Earlier in this paper I stated I would introduce a philosophical puzzle, namely, to the effect of asking ourselves, how is it possible for a psychotic person, who suffers a loss of abstract, metaphorical thinking, to sometimes give more than adequate textual evidence for their wide-ranging use of a rich panorama of metaphorical-like devices? E.g., our `naked lady' had a surfeit of such textual elements. 
	A first observation that should be made is that such devices, although ostensively seen as metaphor, more often than not only masquerade under such a flag. E.g., how could someone say of themselves they were `ethnically cleansing themselves,' that `they were having someone else's babies,' `being given goblin poison,' etc., etc. It is, to borrow a metaphor from one of these patients, as if only the `shell' of the metaphor was in actual use. Can we claim that this breakdown in metaphoricalization takes place though a literalization of the text of the metaphor, or of a series of metaphor, apparently invoked (or evoked)? Already I have answered that in the negative. The person who thought he was being given `goblin poison' still came to the hospital's outpatient department once a week to receive his injection. On the other hand he cognitively stated, and appeared, to believe this interpretation, or rather mis-interpretation, of this regular event, namely, that he was being poisoned. It distressed him to think along those lines, disturbed him enough to mention this `fact' to me a few days latter. One could argue that a certain degree of literalization does indeed take place but that other processes must also be at work. 			
	Interestingly, we have had recently to look after a very disturbed female patient who on entertaining the extremely unlikely possibility of `snakes coming up the drain-pipes' then went on to actually believing that she saw them under her bed and in her bed. In this case it appears we do have the effective literalization of her text in the treatment of metaphorical-like possibilities, however improbable, as actualities. In this situation this person in entertaining the idea `what would it be like if snakes could climb the drain-pipes' then went on to actually entertain this fear as if it had become realized. However, such a state of literalization also produces an interpretation of the world that in its hostile, surreal qualities, re-produces a sense of unreality however real those mis-interpretations individually inserted within it. 
	Thus we might resolve this problem along the following lines. In a psychotic state there are degrees of literalization but in states of extreme, concrete, literalization the world must, as a consequence, also take on an unreal, surreal complexion however real those individual interpretive insertions may appear on the surface of their experience. A recognition of the surreal qualities of this person's world, by that person, is enough to allow that person to realize in their mind of minds, or heart of hearts, that the world is not really constituted in that format (or at least recognizing that, hopefully, the world is not constituted in that format).
	However, we have the following complication that needs to be addressed. Often texts are dialectically formulated in a defiance of (an empirically, or superficially, oriented) logic. In addressing this type of textual anomaly we must further qualify this provisional position of degrees of literalization in the breakdown of metaphorical functions. Certain texts are impossible to treat in a literal fashion. E.g., `ethnically cleansing' one's self is an impossibility; equally `having someone else's babies,' without some form of medical intervention; `turning into Madonna,' etc. All these texts, as they stand, cannot, by convention, be treated literally. Only when certain beliefs are suspended can we imaginatively overcome the laws of nature, the laws of convention, etc. Nor are the reported beliefs of the psychotic person just at stake here! Cultures insist that we believe certain things that, without some form of resolution, are just plainly impossible. Everyday religious philosophies, in this regard, in innumerable forms, ask us to believe a large number of impossible things even `before we start breakfast,' e.g, life after death, men who become gods, virgins who give birth, wine turning into water or blood, to merely name a few paradoxes, mythic structures or symbolic constructions, more familiar to us. 
	How is this possible? How is it possible to think impossible thoughts (or how is it, we may well ask, that through the dialectical nature of consciousness we can actually entertain possible thoughts, or, even thoughts at all for that matter?)? Obviously such dialectical metaphor, and by implication all forms of metaphor, must be treated in a certain way that allows us to entertain a resolution of their inner conflict. This, I believe, can be done, firstly, through a suspension of their structural-functions, and, secondly, through some form of a resolution of their dialectical dissonance. Cultures create dissonance but also, generation by generation, a resolution of the same. Religions and philosophies also both create textual dissonance and in their own ways attempt a resolution of the same.
	Therefore, degrees in the literalization of the metaphorical text is possible when the (internal and external) constitutional conflicts of that text are resolved in some form or other, the relative successfulness in the discharge of such tension being dependent upon the manner and context of that process of treatment. Therefore, by such means, can metaphor be treated, or `mis-treated,' in a relatively non-metaphorical mode of appropriation.

4. The Loss And Recovery Of Value

	One more strand to this solution needs to be brought to our attention in trying to come to an understanding of the nature of metaphorical breakdown. In the psychotic dis-integration of psychic integrity the person looses to a certain extent, reflecting the severity of their illness, their freedom to enter into the world as an active, intentionally coordinated participant. Instead, their performance in the world might be better described as more along the lines of a passive spectator who at the same time also seems to `loose the plot,' from time to time, so to speak. In this dis-integration of gestalt integrity all intentional constructions of that person also equally reflect this loss in the richness of interconnections that collectively establishes the `quality' of that overall psychic field that is co-presented in the ongoing, parallel emergence of an overall sense of self. If that field is metaphorically fractured and shattered then the overall sense of self experienced by that person under these new conditions is equally fractured and shattered. In reaction to such stress, and dis-integration, it is natural for the system to develop processes of compensation in an attempt to restore that lost sense of gestalt integrity. A considerable fraction of the communication entered into by a psychotic person is an expression of this recognition of a loss in self-tone in their experience of being embodied (as an embodied embodiment) in their world of relationships; a current, anomalous, directly intuitive experience of the state, and psychic status, of their overall sense of self. Self-reported information about the commencement, duration of, or fluctuations in, this state of self-awareness are often volunteered. I believe it is very important to correctly interpret this type of content because the patient is telling us about the nature and severity of their illness and any improvements or changes therein. This information can be crucial for the making of important decisions concerning redirections in their treatment programme. Very psychotic individuals are very difficult to communicate and interact with. However, there comes a point in the remission of this type of illness when various forms of support need to be introduced to help that person make the best recovery now open to them and therein consolidate that recovery of being.
	However, in the depths of psychosis the affected individual is more like a doubly cracked mirror. In this mirror the individual reflects the culture of their society with all its inconsistencies, defects and strengths, albeit from a shattered and heavily fragmented point of view. This metaphorical mirror is doubly constructed. When we `look in' we find a fractured and shattered sense of self, when these people `look out' they, in their own way, find a fractured and shattered sense of world. On one hand, passively reflecting a distorted interpretation of their social world, and, on the other hand, who are also actively engaged therein in a distorted pattern of responses reflecting inappropriately on the nature of that social world. Such patterns of behaviour adopted often appear bizarre in terms of conventional logic but which in terms of the distorted logic of that psychotic individual make some degree of sense. Our coming to understand that inner logic allowing us to better interact with that individual in a more supportive role, etc.
	Fragments of that psychotic person's culture, often of a religious nature, are seized upon and reinterpreted from the perspective and needs of that psychotic individual. Topical issues of the day become pre-occupations of these individuals, e.g., our `naked lady' and her concerns for `ethnic cleansing, plane crashes, being like Madonna,' etc. Currently unfashionable religious elements also come to the surface, or, religious metaphors that don't usually get a literal interpretation are re-interpreted, and sometimes also enacted out, in that light. This search for value, a re-creation of value, often taking a rather eclectic complexion in its acquisition of a bizarre assembly of otherwise respectable metaphor already operating in that person's culture, or vision of some other culture, (albeit operating in a more integrated fashion but not necessarily without some degree of considerable tension, defused through a variety of contemporary mechanisms that often need continual reconstruction generation by generation, person by person). The metaphorical content of bizarre texts taking an unconventional dimension either deliberately in the creation of comic situations, or, unintentionally through a disorganized, mis-interpretation and re-integration of such devices on a relatively literal level of textual formulation (and resolution). This explanation also needs to be taken into account when we look at the metaphor, or lack of metaphor, in a text whether relatively bizarre or relatively non-bizarre in conventionally interpreted terms of reference.
	In interpreting texts emitted by psychotic individuals out attention should also focus on these reports that appear to be related to this sense of self-tone, expressions of lost value and processes adopted, and adapted, for value re-creation. For the involved interpreter of such texts a certain degree of discrimination needs to be exercised in a determination of what aspects have a real authenticity of value creation for that individual in the process giving that person access and opportunity to overcome and rectify what otherwise would be ultimately unsatisfactory compensatory processes in a restoration of that lost sense of self-value. The facilitator of this value-conversion process must also operate with the necessary degree of authenticity in order to act on the behalf of that person although it my belief that this therapeutic role is more along the lines of a catalyst rather than an active manipulator, albeit existentially enacted, of that person's relationship with the world, themselves and the world of others. Let me therefore focus some attention on the theoretical and practical dimensions of authenticity in value re-creation.

5. Authenticity

	Let me first state that it is my belief that authenticity in value creation is an authenticity in value re-creation. Already present authentic value is discovered, refined and allowed to grow. Value cannot be imposed, only self-imposed. On the other hand value re-creation is neither purely an individual affair. The self-identity of the person is always interpreted, in part, from a social point of view. Textual formulations on this very subject are always going to involve the necessary implication of a meta-textual dimension which by rights is always, through its already prepared creation of conventional genre, primarily a social phenomenon.
	As noted previously I perceived the phenomenon of authenticity to take place when there is an adequate degree of textual conformity already to hand. "A spade must be called a spade," otherwise how are we going to dig the garden if we do not perceive this primary function of the spade. Only then can we be more creative and see the spade for something else as well if that is going to be of advantage to us, e.g., as something to lean on when we take rest during our work in the garden. 
	Some degree of conformity is forever always present. The real world is forever with us. Otherwise there can only be true and absolute death! All ideas, all thoughts, all expressions of behaviour are grounded in some appreciation of this one real, experiential world of intersubjective reality. Merely to think about some other form of reality is to take our current understanding of this world and subject it to some form of de-formation, or re-formation, only in part and never in its totality. Possible worlds can never be only purely possible. Forever they must reflect this world-of-life in some measure or other. That granted some degree of conformity must equally be forever present in all our relationships. Living in the world demands that this continuous process of conformation be continually self-refined. Our freedom to be is a sheer reflection of this fact. It is this existential ground of the relationship under examination that is to be investigated and re-created, self-authenticated and re-enlarged. However, the manner of this act of relational self-growth must be initiated and exercised from the existential center of that relationship and not imposed from without. The relationship must be allowed to unfold in its own fashion in keeping with the spirit of its own self-presence as a creative force in this world-of-life. This process of insight, and self-insight, unfolding and expanding in tune with the growth of that relationship. This repetitive process continually re-storing value as authenticity in value demands its own ongoing, continual re-creation as all value that is not recreated is lost!
	Hence the practical dimension of value re-creation recognizes these following essential properties of value. That value is created through conformity with the experiential reality of that reality, and, re-created through acts of re-conformity with the experiential reality of that reality. Value is discovered through the existential nature of our relationships, i.e., through an understanding of the relational, non-material nature of our relationships. But as our relationships are equally in the world their material basis in this world of experience must, in their use, also be transformed along spiritual lines as potential sources for value re-creation, e.g., that value released through a reciprocal sharing of our wealth and human resources in a thoughtful climate of care and concern, etc. That, basically, value is re-created through a growth of our relationships, when those relationships are allowed to conform, and more closely coincide, with the center of their own relative worlds of being; worlds within worlds, worlds between worlds.

6. The Psycho-Dynamics Of Repetitive Functions

	Obviously the re-creation of value, the re-instantiation of insight, is a process of repetition. The entire (hermeneutical) process of interpretation is founded and grounded on processes of repetition on all levels of its performance. But there is a tremendous difference between mere repetition and what I would like to define as sheer repetition. 
	Imagine, if you would, a world where we only thought the same thought or series of thoughts. I once knew of a psychotically depressed patient whose entire conversational set piece, for months on end, was to repeat the following formula: "All my relatives are dying. It must be my fault. I must be very bad. I am a very wicked person. All my relatives are dying," etc.
	Obviously the world would grind to a halt if all there was was just mere repetition. On the other hand imagine, if you would, a very strange world where no person ever thought the same thought twice and forever never repeated themselves in any shape or form. Without doubt the world as we know it would instantaneously collapse for us. We could not communicate with each other and nor could we even communicate with our own sense of self. Under such circumstances no sense of self could ever persist.
	It follows that to think the same thought, more or less, for a period of time, that act of intentionality must be continually re-presented from moment to moment. Obviously this activity cannot be merely repetitive. Value must be added to our re-presentation through slight shifts in our conformity to that process of presentation. These micro-acts of sheer repetitional alteration enhance our thematization of that thought process, allow us to re-create that content, give us a new perspective upon the contents of that process, allow us to adapt that process for new ends, etc. Then, the accumulation of more radical shifts effectively allows us to de-present that presentational process and move on to consider some relatively new process of thought, in effect allow us to re-direct the direction of our intentional focus and thematization.
	Essentially, insight is a process of judgment, a process of judgmental recognition. In the light of this analysis of repetition it follows that the productive process of intentionality must develop and maintain some degree of balance between mere conformity and sheer conformity. Indeed, that acts of conformity are re-valued through act of non-conformity where the latter fruitfully qualifies the former. That in value re-creation mere re-creation can only result in the loss of value just as much as an unhealthy over emphasis on sheer repetition must destroy the value of that already created and re-created. 
	On reflection it should also be apparent that the balance between these two types of repetition should not be in a static relationship to each other but in a responsible state of responsiveness to the degree of balance that needs to be instantiated and adopted on a situation by situation basis (whilst also maintaining simultaneously an internal balance within the constitution (of our understanding) of that situation, and, the external balance of reciprocity (in our understanding) between that situation in its situatedness).
	One might conclude, therefore, that disturbances in these three axes of mere repetition, sheer repetition and their flexible balance, or suspension, would manifest itself as a disturbance in the very constitution of our intentionality, a state of affairs finding reflection in the appropriateness and propriety of our behaviour as a person in a social world of conventionally pre-defined meaning and meaningfulness. Forms of significance that must be adopted and adapted as we make our passage through this world-of-life. In turn, all processes of suspension being themselves suspended in order to free ourselves from such relative confinement and, thereby, allowing us to re-participate in this world of re-created value whose authenticity is dependent upon the delicate balance that must be in play between these various facets and fields, levels and aspects of consciousness.
	That, effectively, in mapping these process-directions, and noting the nature of defects therein, we should be able to account for the  distinctive phenomenologies of mental disturbance already directly or indirectly observed. Moreover, through further insightful thematization of these classifications we should be able to make more subtle shifts in a re-direction of those classifications in order to deepen and strengthen our endeavours in this field of existential-psychological appreciation.

7. Conclusion

	All textual deposition conforms to the existential nature of the world to some degree or other. Therefore no text can be completely inauthentic in its moment or period of creation. On the other hand no text can be absolutely authentic either, in complete insightful conformity with the nature of the world of our relationships. The goal of absolute relational concordance with the world of our relationships is an impossible dream to realize. However, authenticity is not realized in `being authentic' but in `becoming authentic.' In realizing our fullest potential we must adopt an orientation towards authenticity that allows us to move in that direction. This orientation is already in the center of our relationships regardless of whether they are conducted in good faith or in bad faith. Through the existential process of authentication we become more free, more insightful, more spontaneous, more appropriate, more creative, more responsive, more loving, more in harmony with the relational fabric of this life-world. In this sense of continual transformation, through a re-creation of value, we become more real, less subject to alienation and more capable of helping those around us who have become alienated in their relationship with this same world-of-life.
	Because all textual deposition is conducted in this same life-world it can be appropriated, and re-appropriated, by any person in a position to relate to and interpret that text. In our interpretation of an apparently bizarre text, or any text for that matter, let us develop our powers of insightful appreciation of that text, through developing our conformity with it, that in our relationship with it we may be able to discern and critically differentiate that which is authentically bizarre from that which is inauthentically bizarre. Existential acts of non-conformity (received in the form of textual depositions) can easily be mistaken for bizarre forms of textuality. On the other hand defectively reconstructed meta-texts will create bizarre texts expressed with a similar degree of mis-construction (and in the process left more open to processes of self-deconstruction). Further more, processes of excessive non-conformity will realize an inauthentically bizarre text equally reflecting, in a direct measure, that degree of excess. Nor should we mistake acts of mere textual conformity as indicating progress in a process of authentic textual formation. On the other hand however inauthentically malformed, or de-formed, a text may appear we should always `listen to' that text in the hope that it can tell us something about its author, tell us something about the nature of their relationship with the world and the nature of our relationship with them.
	Listening to the noises of commission and the silences of omission, determining its limits or margins, finding the center of its presence in the world of textuality that in our conformity with this world of simulated being we may truly hear what that author has to say or not say, and, that in the midst of such flowing-stillness we can then truly, in turn, speak to that author with a voice of authenticity in an authentic dialogue that authenticates the being of both that author and that person willing to listen to them.

						Noël Tointon, Sydney, 14.5.93.