The Value of ‘Certainty’ in Psychiatry (and beyond.)

As a psychiatrist, I often work with those for whom the subjective nature of reality is vastly different from what is objectively true. This can provide intense suffering, or release from it. From a metaphysical standpoint, many simply see what is not there, and by hold with this sight a conviction equal in strength of its existence to my own of its delusionality.

The crucial difference is the departure from an objective and replicable universal working model, by which we all set our clocks. But in my practice and witching-hour thoughts, I have found myself considering what drives us and links us together and how knowing this can help me help others.

And for the moment, and this may change, a huge part of that is the idea of ‘certainty’ and the role it plays in both healing and illness.

Within this short essay I hope to introduce you to the concept of certainty, how we came to conceptualise it, its limitations and its relevance to ourselves as humans and how it pertains to psychiatry.

Chaos and uncertainty

For my part I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream. -Vincent Van Gogh, Artist (1853–1890)

It may seem to us that we live in a predominantly uncertain world. With chaos quick to reign…