ABSTRACT
This commentary concerns reversible dynamics in the psyche as they relate to knowledge and experience of reality, inner and outer. Hazards and failures that occur in psychosis are discussed. Examples of physical and psychological reversals are provided. Freud noted that reversal is an elementary operation of the mind, an early defense, perhaps even preceding defenses. The capacity to reverse experiential perspective is allied with the general ability of the mind to distinguish and unite, consider multiple points of view, self-reflect and process experience. In psychosis, the capacity for reversal is exploited and distorted. For the psychotic mind, natural movements between inner space, outer world, and in between get jumbled up and confused. Healthy functioning of reversal is based on a fluid play of doubleness between inner and outer, self and other that we take for granted. Physically, psychologically, and emotionally we are made of I-feelings as well as an “anonymous I.” The latter is part of our otherness, a mystery that helps constitute subjectivity. Our I is both personal and impersonal simultaneously. The fluid movement of doubleness is lost in psychosis, often replaced with rigidity, omniscience, and need for control.
