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Two episodes of insight occurring toward the end of a patient's psychoanalysis are described and their differences emphasized for purposes of exposition. One is characterized as psychoanalytic insight and the other as reality-oriented insight. It is recognized that both types are essential for working through. In each type there are various phases or stages which become integrated into a Gestalt through the psychoanalytic process. The various phases are delineated individually in some detail, and speculations are made about the genetic roots of each phase. It is felt that a capacity to suspend attention, to recapitulate in fantasy earlier efforts at mastery, to observe such efforts in an autonomous manner, to re-experience qualities of the mental state prominent during this attempt at mastery, and finally to reintegrate through a deep acceptance of
one's own reactions are crucial features of psychoanalytic insight. This contrasts with reality-oriented insight where there is a different mode of deploying attention, where attempted mastery through fantasy is not a prominent aspect of the process, and where self-observation is largely in terms of a better understanding of one's relationship with key figures. This type of insight is nonetheless of a high order of integration and may have considerable adaptive value.