Beliefs and assumptions act as filters through which thoughts and sensations pass before individuals make decisions or conclusions. Most often these filters concern either ideas about an individual’s identity or the exterior world. The source of many of these cognitive gates can be traced to childhood or other life experiences. These thought sentries can have either positive or negative effects.
Furthermore, many individuals operate on the basis of self-defined images that are associated with the “self” or the world. These images are continually referenced and compared to thoughts or sensory input. When conflicts arise between these “images” and definitions and other thoughts or input, then problems often arise. Much of mental illness and disorder is caused by the discontinuity of conceived reality versus perceived reality.
Conversely, an individual’s degree of mental health is tied to an ability to adapt conceptions about self and the external, to sensory perceptions. And, although there is nothing unhealthy about envisioning things differently than they are or appear to be, the capability of differentiating vision from concrete reality or empirically suggested frames of reference delineates dreams from delusion.
(more to follow)
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