ABSTRACT
Many adults with severe mental illness experience persistent dif®culties in forming and scrutinizing complex ideas about themselves and others. This may involve de®cits in many related but distinct psychological tasks. For instance, it may be problematic to recognize one's own thoughts and feelings. Emotions may be undetectable or characterized in a singular manner. I may, for instance, be unable to name what I feel. I may be able to know that I feel something but can only describe it as one intense internal state without any nuance that never wavers. It may seem impossible to intuit the feelings of another person who is talking to me or two other people who are talking to one another just a few feet away. The requirements of a social situation may appear hopelessly ambiguous. I may have no idea of how others will respond if I tell a joke. I may be unable to distinguish the good-natured joking of others from malicious slander. Personal reactions to complex events may appear as the impregnably true explanation of those events rather than individual beliefs. I may feel that I cannot possibly question my sense that another person loves or hates me. There may appear to be only one solution to an unexpected challenge, despite the fact that others can readily imagine a wide range of alternative possible courses of action or ways to cope.
