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THE WORD "INSIGHT" IMPLIES "I SEE INTO MYSELF," OR "INTO MY mind." There is, of course, no "eye" which sees into the mind; there is no space which the mind occupies; there is no physical mind to be "seen into." "Insight," then, is a metaphor taken from an actual experience an individual has with his environment; specifically, the metaphor is taken from the experience a child has with his mother. In this experience the child perceives his self, his mother, and the interaction with her as "seeing into" him, and knowing and understanding what she sees. This perception by the child of the experience with mother is then internalized and experienced by the individual as self-awareness, self-understanding, or seeing into oneself, all of which can be thought of as forms of "insight."
This mother-child process also incorporates the attachment of words to feelings and behavior, and the way this "naming" sometimes results in a feeling of success, a feeling of mastery, and a reduction of tension and psychic pain. The mother's "naming"