AUTOPSYCHIC

A general term characterizing impulses or ideas which originate from the self; also, pertaining to selfconsciousness or ideas relating to the individual’s own personality. Autopsychic is the opposite of allopsychic, a term applied to projecting one’s own ideas or feelings into other people. Autopsychic ideas may occur on either a normal or pathological level. An example of the former is the belief in our own competence as a reflection of inner wishes or convictions rather than of the opinions of others. The pathological type frequently occurs in paranoid disorders, which are sometimes termed autopsychoses. In these disorders the patient has distorted ideas about himself: he may think he is an undiscovered genius, a savior, or the devil incarnate. Such delusions are believed to result from unconscious needs, and are termed autopsychic because they pertain to the self and also because they arise from within the psyche.