ABSTRACT
Why describe acute psychosis according to different phases? The simplest answer is that thinking in terms of phases makes it easier to orientate oneself when, as a clinician, a difficult and upsetting situation must be confronted and it is necessary to understand what is being experienced. There is a similarity between a psychotic process and the phases of shock in a traumatic crisis, reaction, adaptation and reorientation. Thinking about phases is also important in the work of helping the patient to recognise early signs that he or she is about to relapse. It is possible, thereby, to get a closer understanding of the fact that a certain symptom can have a different meaning in relation to the phase in which it appears. Finally, those who are treating the patient and the patient’s relatives become more capable of seeing the acute psychosis as, in principle, an understandable difficulty in the life of a vulnerable person. It gives a more realistic sense of hope to the work ahead.
