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delusion

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Definition

A delusion is an unshakable belief in something untrue. These irrational beliefs defy normal reasoning, and remain firm even when overwhelming proof is presented to dispute them. Delusions are often accompanied by hallucinations and/or feelings of paranoia, which act to strengthen confidence in the delusion. Delusions are distinct from culturally or religiously based beliefs that may be seen as untrue by outsiders.

Description

Delusions are a common symptom of several mood and personality-related mental illnesses, including schizoaffective disorder, schizophrenia, shared psychotic disorder, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder. They are also the major feature of delusional disorder. Individuals with delusional disorder suffer from long-term, complex delusions that fall into one of six categories: persecutory, grandiose, jealousy, erotomanic, somatic, or mixed. There are also delusional disorders such as dementia that clearly have organic or physical causes.

Persecutory

Individuals with persecutory delusional disorder are plagued by feelings of paranoia and an irrational yet unshakable belief that someone is plotting against them, or out to harm them.

Grandiose

Individuals with grandiose delusional disorder have an over-inflated sense of self-worth. Their delusions center on their own importance, such as believing that they have done or created something of extreme value or have a "special mission."

Jealousy

Jealous delusions are unjustified and irrational beliefs that an individual's spouse or significant other has been unfaithful.

Erotomanic

Individuals with erotomanic delusional disorder believe that another person, often a stranger, is in love with them. The object of their affection is typically of a higher social status, sometimes a celebrity. This type of delusional disorder may lead to stalking or other potentially dangerous behavior.

Somatic

Somatic delusions involve the belief that something is physically wrong with the individual. The delusion may involve a medical condition or illness or a perceived deformity. This condition differs from hypochondriasis in that the deformity is perceived as a fixed condition not a temporary illness.

Mixed

Mixed delusions are those characterized by two or more of persecutory, grandiose, jealousy, erotomanic, or somatic themes.

— Paula Anne Ford-Martin



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Dictionary: de·lu·sion   (dĭ-lū'zhən) pronunciation
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n.
    1. The act or process of deluding.
    2. The state of being deluded.
  1. A false belief or opinion: labored under the delusion that success was at hand.
  2. Psychiatry. A false belief strongly held in spite of invalidating evidence, especially as a symptom of mental illness: delusions of persecution.

[Middle English delusioun, from Latin dēlūsiō, dēlūsiōn-, from dēlūsus, past participle of dēlūdere, to delude. See delude.]

delusional de·lu'sion·al adj.

Antonyms: delusion
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n

Definition: misconception, misbelief
Antonyms: actuality, certainty, fact, reality, surety, truth


Dental Dictionary: delusion
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n

A persistent, aberrant belief or perception held inviolable by a person despite evidence to the contrary.

Philosophy Dictionary: delusion
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Generally, any false opinion that a person persists in may be called a delusion. In the philosophy of perception, delusions such as hallucinations are sometimes distinguished from more everyday illusions, such as the bent appearance of a stick in water, or a mirage. Mirages and standard illusions are public and repeatable. They are cases in which a certain kind of stimulus naturally gives rise to an incorrect interpretation. A delusion, by contrast, is thought of as a private perceptual derangement.

A false judgement or conclusion; usually used in reference to a mentally ill person, but it has also been applied to sports people, particularly when they act irrationally under the pressure of competition.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: delusion
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delusion, false belief based upon a misinterpretation of reality. It is not, like a hallucination, a false sensory perception, or like an illusion, a distorted perception. Delusions vary in intensity, and are not uncommon among substance abusers, particularly those who use amphetamines, cocaine, and hallucinogens. They also occur frequently among individuals who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, or schizophrenia, and during the manic stage of bipolar disorder (see depression). Some common delusions include persecutory delusions, in which the individual falsely believes that others are plotting against him; delusions of thought broadcasting, where the individual believes his thoughts can be transmitted to others; delusions of thought insertion, in which the individual believes that thoughts are being implanted in his mind; and delusions of grandeur, in which the individual imagines himself an unappreciated person of great importance.


Psychoanalysis: Delusion
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The first essential feature that defines a delusion is that it concerns something that appears to be external to the subject. It is thereby distinguished from obsessive ideas and idées fixes. More precisely, wecan say that in a delusion, an internal experience appears in theperceptual field. Delusion therefore concerns reality as a whole, which distinguishes it from phobia, where the distortion of reality is more circumscribed, because projection manages to localize conflict, and keep the rest of the subject's mental life intact. In delusion, conversely, the whole of reality is affected, and indeed the delusion, for the subject, is the whole of reality.

In this sense, delusion represents a critical risk. Sigmund Freud speaks accordingly of a necessary restoration of the object (1924e), whether it is a matter of the high level of libidinal or narcissistic tension evidentin extreme cases, or a fundamental questioning of identity and relationswith others that is at stake.

Delusion is therefore something other than error. Being delusional remains compatible with an accurate apprehension of reality. We can even consider the delusional individual as deprived of the freedom to establisha flexible relationship between reality and truth, as Paul-Claude Racamierhas said.

From this general perspective, we can differentiate the two main modalities for the expression of delusions. In one, this involves a disturbance of consciousness, whose heightened character can have different causes: a consciousness that is captive and agonized; or a delirium tremens, which externalizes metabolic disturbances in the form of images; or the dream-like upheaval of acute psychotic delusions; or the psychedelic intoxication of hallucinogens. In the other mode, the same reversal of reality can express the refusal that occurs during hallucinatory confusions that seek to isolate a repressed complex, and keep it in a shadowy, hysterical state.

There are occasions, however, when acute delirious moments are experienced in isolation, as in the "primordial delusional fact" described by Jacques Moreau de Tours, or the "primary delusional experience" described by Karl Jaspers, where the strange and uncanny appears, sometimes in the form of illuminating moments in which a perception takes on a revela-tory quality, or a moment of questioning emerges without yielding any sense. These seem to be direct confrontations between unconscious fantasy and reality, like a topographical short-circuit that requires a return of the preconscious from the exterior world, within the delusion of interpretation.

In yet another dynamic of delusion, less sharp in its temporal unfolding, the dominant issue concerns the limit between inside and outside. During moments of mental automatism, thought grows heavy with the weight of words that have lost their meaning. The schizophrenic seeks in hallucination to exteriorize an internal life that is invasive and does not seem to belong to him. Chronic delusions, in the French systems of classification, or in Kraepelin's paraphrenias, are more likely to create delusions that are simultaneously persecutory and protective, sometimes to the point of allowing a reconstruction of the entire world (Schreber, 1903).

Passion also, with its affective power to dominate, can provide material for delusions, along other lines. The paranoiac projection of homosexual impulses can turn into delusions of persecution, jealousy, or erotomania, depending on whether it is the subject or the object of the fantasized investment that is affected by the delusional force. However, emphasis should be placed on the narcissistic demand, the lack of an object, and the shortcoming, within the primary homosexual relation, that eroticization compromises and which the delusion of persecution maintains as both present and distant (Jenneau, 1990). In other cases it is the superego that returns in the "delusion of reference," where the shame and guilt of voyeurism blend together in projection (Kretschmer, 1927).

One sees in this brief description that delusion cannot be explained simply in terms of a certain way of treating instinctual life at the expense of reality. One also has to take into account the patient's need to express conflict, in a single-minded way, within this reality. It is the causality of delusion that remains the foremost question, even within radically different accounts.

Bibliography

Freud, Sigmund. (1924e). The loss of reality in neurosis and psychosis. SE, 19, 180-187.

Jaspers, Karl. (1913). Allgemeine psychopathologie. Berlin: Springer.

Jenneau, Augustin. (1990). Les délires non psychotiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Kretschmer, Ernst. (1963). Paranoïa et sensibilité. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. (Original work published 1927)

Schreber, Daniel Paul. (1988). Memoirs of my nervous illness. (I. Macalpine, R. Hunter, Trans.) Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1903)

Further Reading

Robbins, Michael. (2002). The language of schizophrenia and the world of delusion. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 83, 383-406.

Shengold, Leonard. (1995). Delusions of everyday life. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Law Dictionary: Delusion
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A false belief which is produced by a mental disorder and which people of the same age, class, and education would find incredible. A delusion can be the basis for the insanity defense to a crime. Perkins & Boyce, Criminal Law 964 (3d ed. 1982).

Science Dictionary: delusion
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A false belief held despite strong evidence against it; self-deception. Delusions are common in some forms of psychosis. Because of his delusions, the literary character Don Quixote attacks a windmill, thinking it is a giant.

World of the Mind: delusion
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A delusion is a fixed, idiosyncratic belief, unusual in the culture to which the person belongs. Unlike normal beliefs, which are subject to amendment or correction, a delusion is held to, despite evidence or arguments brought against it. Delusions are usually taken to indicate mental illness, but something akin to them is occasionally to be observed, at a meeting of scientists, for instance, when a person insists on the correctness of an idea he overvalues, and denies any significance to evidence appearing to refute it. There is a difference: usually he gets angry, whereas in mental illness the patient's emotional response when a delusion is challenged tends to be bland or otherwise inappropriate.

Extravagant ideas are relatively common at times of frustration. A driver, frustrated when his car does not start, may allege serious deficiencies in all the cars made in the same country as his. This is to overgeneralize from the particular. Similarly, a student who has failed a test may feel for a while that he has failed as a student or, more generally still, as a person. Such feelings if they persist would amount to a delusion of unworthiness. Or he may conclude that his teachers are hostile to him, or that the world is against him. A persistent idea of this kind, especially if a person believes that there is a conspiracy or concerted action against him, is a delusion of persecution. A fixed belief that he is physically ill or, more extreme, that his organs are rotting or are destroyed, is a hypochondriacal delusion; that he does not exist or is nothing, a nihilistic delusion; that he has an exalted position or powers, a delusion of grandeur.

There is often sense in delusions, although it may be expressed extravagantly or confusingly. A man who declares that his wife is persistently unfaithful to him may be understood to mean that she has had sexual intercourse on many occasions with others. He is deluded if he insists unreasonably that this is so, in which case he is probably an example of the morbid jealousy syndrome; but he may only wish to convey his feelings that she no longer shows love or concern for him, feelings for which there might be some justification.

A delusion may persist because it explains what would otherwise cause anxiety. Soldiers serving under stressful conditions occasionally express the belief that 'they' are putting bromide into the soup. The meaning of this belief emerges when added to it is the belief that aphrodisiacs are being put into the soup of other units. It serves to explain, for those who hold it, the changes produced by the stressful conditions in the pattern of occurrence of penile erections. Some bizarre delusions are unlabelled metaphors. A mentally ill girl says that she is the Virgin Mary. What perhaps she means is that she feels that she is still a virgin although she fears she is pregnant. The delusion, with its implication of her essential goodness, mitigates the intense anxiety which being seduced and becoming pregnant would otherwise evoke.

Why are delusions resistant to modification in the light of other evidence? In this respect they are similar to the behaviours, characteristic of neurosis, which persist although they appear to be maladaptive. It is supposed that they persist because, being instrumental in reducing anxiety, they are reinforced.

This is only part of an explanation of delusions, which, with hallucinations, are the cardinal symptoms of some forms of mental illness. In cases of paranoid schizophrenia, the patient may reveal, as well as hallucinations, a more or less coherent system of delusions of persecution and grandeur, without showing any awareness of how abnormal the ideas he expresses are. In other cases of schizophrenia, the delusions may be contradictory and incoherent. Severely disabling are hypochondriacal delusions, especially when they are associated with symptoms of depersonalization, the patient then feeling that he has changed in personality with loss of his sense of identity; this may amount to a nihilistic delusion. Delusions of unworthiness occur in depressive illnesses in association with misery and hopelessness.

(Published 1987)

See also paranoia.

— Derek Russell Davis



Devil's Dictionary: delusion
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A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.

    All hail, Delusion!  Were it not for thee
    The world turned topsy-turvy we should see;
    For Vice, respectable with cleanly fancies,
    Would fly abandoned Virtue's gross advances.
                                                        Mumfrey Mappel


Word Tutor: delusion
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pronunciation

IN BRIEF: A misleading or mistaken conviction. Also: a false belief that persists despite the facts and occurs especially in abnormal mental states.

pronunciation The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke (1729-1797).

Wikipedia: Delusion
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Contents

Delusion
Classification and external resources
ICD-10 F22.
ICD-9 297
MeSH D003702

A delusion, in everyday language, is a fixed belief that is either false, fanciful, or derived from deception. Psychiatry defines the term more specifically as a belief that is pathological (the result of an illness or illness process). As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, apperception, illusion, or other effects of perception.

Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness, although they are not tied to any particular disease and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both physical and mental). However, they are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic disorders and particularly in schizophrenia, paraphrenia, manic episodes of bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression.

Psychiatric definition

Although non-specific concepts of madness have been around for several thousand years, the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his 1917 book General Psychopathology. These criteria are:

  • certainty (held with absolute conviction)
  • incorrigibility (not changeable by compelling counterargument or proof to the contrary)
  • impossibility or falsity of content (implausible, bizarre or patently untrue)

These criteria still continue in modern psychiatric diagnosis. The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines a delusion as:

A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture.

There is controversy over this definition, as 'despite what almost everybody else believes' implies that a person who believes something most others do not is a candidate for delusional thought. Furthermore, it is ironic that, while the above three criteria are usually attributed to Jaspers, he himself described them as only 'vague' and merely 'external'.[1] He also wrote that, since the genuine or 'internal' 'criteria for delusion proper lie in the primary experience of delusion and in the change of the personality [and not in the above three loosely descriptive criteria], we can see that a delusion may be correct in content without ceasing to be a delusion, for instance - that there is a world-war.'.[2]

Types

Delusions are categorized as either bizarre or non-bizarre and as either mood-congruent or mood-neutral. A bizarre delusion is a delusion that is very strange and completely implausible; an example of a bizarre delusion would be that aliens have removed the affected person's brain. A non-bizarre delusion is one whose content is definitely mistaken, but is at least possible; an example may be that the affected person mistakenly believes they are under constant police surveillance. A mood-congruent delusion is any delusion whose content is consistent with either a depressive or manic state; for example, a depressed person may believe that news anchors on the television highly disapprove of him or her, or a person in a manic state might believe that they are a powerful deity. A mood-neutral delusion does not relate to the sufferer's emotional state; for example, a belief that an extra limb is growing out of the back of one's head is neutral to either depression or mania.[3]

In addition to these categories, delusions often manifest according to a consistent theme. Although delusions can have any theme, certain themes are more common. Some of the more common delusion themes are [3]:

  • Delusion of control: This is a false belief that another person, group of people, or external force controls one's thoughts, feelings, impulses, or behavior. A person may describe, for instance, the experience that aliens actually make him or her move in certain ways and that the person affected has no control over the bodily movements. Thought broadcasting (the false belief that the affected person's thoughts are heard aloud), thought insertion, and thought withdrawal (the belief that an outside force, person, or group of people is removing or extracting a person's thoughts) are also examples of delusions of control.
  • Nihilistic delusion: A delusion whose theme centers on the nonexistence of self or parts of self, others, or the world. A person with this type of delusion may have the false belief that the world is ending.
  • Delusional jealousy (or delusion of infidelity): A person with this delusion falsely believes their spouse or lover is having an affair. This delusion stems from pathological jealousy, and the person often gathers "evidence" and confronts the spouse about the nonexistent affair.
  • Delusion of guilt or sin (or delusion of self-accusation): This is a false feeling of remorse or guilt of delusional intensity. A person may, for example, believe they have committed some horrible crime and should be punished severely. Another example is a person who is convinced they are responsible for some disaster (such as fire, flood, or earthquake) with which there can be no possible connection.
  • Delusion of mind being read: The false belief that other people can know one's thoughts. This is different from thought broadcasting in that the person does not believe their thoughts are heard aloud.
  • Delusion of reference: The person falsely believes that insignificant remarks, events, or objects in one's environment have personal meaning or significance. For instance, a person may believe they are receiving special messages from newspaper headlines.
  • Erotomania is a delusion in which one believes that another person is in love with him or her. They believe that this other person was the first to declare his or her affection, often by special glances, signals, telepathy, or messages through the media.
  • Grandiose delusion: An individual is convinced they have special powers, talents, or abilities. Sometimes, the individual may actually believe they are a famous person or character (for example, a rock star). More commonly, a person with this delusion may believe they have accomplished some great achievement for which they have not received sufficient recognition (for example, the discovery of a new scientific theory).
  • Persecutory delusions: These are the most common type of delusions and involve the theme of being followed, harassed, cheated, poisoned or drugged, conspired against, spied on, attacked, or obstructed in the pursuit of goals. Sometimes the delusion is isolated and fragmented (such as the false belief that co-workers are harassing), but sometimes are well-organized belief systems involving a complex set of delusions ("systematized delusions"). People with a set of persecutory delusions may believe, for example, they are being followed by government organizations because the "persecuted" person has been falsely identified as a spy. These systems of beliefs can be so broad and complex that they can explain everything that happens to the person.
  • Religious delusion: Any delusion with a religious or spiritual content. These may be combined with other delusions, such as grandiose delusions (the belief that the affected person was chosen by God, for example), delusions of control, or delusions of guilt. Beliefs that would be considered normal for an individual's religious or cultural background are classed as mass delusions.
  • Somatic delusion: A delusion whose content pertains to bodily functioning, bodily sensations, or physical appearance. Usually the false belief is that the body is somehow diseased, abnormal, or changed—for example, infested with parasites.

Diagnostic issues

James Tilly Matthews drew this picture of a machine that he called an "air loom", which he believed was being used to torture himself and others for political purposes.

The modern definition and Jaspers' original criteria have been criticised, as counter-examples can be shown for every defining feature.

Studies on psychiatric patients have shown that delusions can be seen to vary in intensity and conviction over time which suggests that certainty and incorrigibility are not necessary components of a delusional belief.[4]

Delusions do not necessarily have to be false or 'incorrect inferences about external reality'.[5] Some religious or spiritual beliefs by their nature may not be falsifiable, and hence cannot be described as false or incorrect, no matter whether the person holding these beliefs was diagnosed as delusional or not. [6]

In other situations the delusion may turn out to be true belief.[7] For example, delusional jealousy, where a person believes that their partner is being unfaithful (and may even follow them into the bathroom believing them to be seeing their lover even during the briefest of partings) may result in the faithful partner being driven to infidelity by the constant and unreasonable strain put on them by their delusional spouse. In this case the delusion does not cease to be a delusion because the content later turns out to be true.

In other cases, the delusion may be assumed to be false by a doctor or psychiatrist assessing the belief, because it seems to be unlikely, bizarre or held with excessive conviction. Psychiatrists rarely have the time or resources to check the validity of a person’s claims leading to some true beliefs to be erroneously classified as delusional.[8] This is known as the Martha Mitchell effect, after the wife of the attorney general who alleged that illegal activity was taking place in the White House. At the time her claims were thought to be signs of mental illness, and only after the Watergate scandal broke was she proved right (and hence sane).

Similar factors have led to criticisms of Jaspers' definition of true delusions as being ultimately 'un-understandable'. Critics (such as R. D. Laing) have argued that this leads to the diagnosis of delusions being based on the subjective understanding of a particular psychiatrist, who may not have access to all the information which might make a belief otherwise interpretable. R.D. Laing's hypothesis has been applied to some forms of projective therapy to "fix" a delusional system so that it cannot be altered by the patient. Psychiatric researchers at Yale University, Ohio State University and the Community Mental Health Center of Middle Georgia have used novels and motion picture films as the focus. Texts, plots and cinematography are discussed and the delusions approached tangentially.[9]. This use of fiction to decrease the malleability of a delusion was employed in a joint project by science-fiction author Philip Jose Farmer and Yale psychiatrist A. James Giannini. They wrote the novel Red Orc's Rage which, recursively, deals with delusional adolescents who are treated with a form of projective therapy. In this novel's fictional setting other novels written by Farmer are discussed and the characters are symbolically integrated into the delusions of fictional patients.This particular novel was then applied to real-life clinical settings. [10]

Another difficulty with the diagnosis of delusions is that almost all of these features can be found in "normal" beliefs. Many religious beliefs hold exactly the same features, yet are not universally considered delusional. These factors have led the psychiatrist Anthony David to note that "there is no acceptable (rather than accepted) definition of a delusion."[11] In practice psychiatrists tend to diagnose a belief as delusional if it is either patently bizarre, causing significant distress, or excessively pre-occupies the patient, especially if the person is subsequently unswayed in belief by counter-evidence or reasonable arguments.

Development of specific delusions

The top two 'Factors mainly concerned in the germination of delusions' are:1. Disorder of brain functioning and 2. background influences of temperament and personality[12].

Higher levels of dopamine qualify as a symptom of 'disorders of brain function'. That they are needed to sustain certain delusions was examined by a preliminary study on delusional disorder (a psychotic syndrome) which was instigated to clarify if schizophrenia had a dopamine psychosis [13] There were positive results - delusions of jealousy and persecution had different levels of dopamine metabolite HVA (which may have been genetic). These can be only regarded as tentative results; the study called for future research with a larger population.

Yet there is anecdoatal corroboration. The influence of dopamine is confirmed anecdotally in case studies of amphetamine psychosis [14][15][16]

It is too simplistic to say that a certain measure of dopamine will bring about a specific delusion. Studies show age [17][18].and gender to be influential and it is most likely that HVA levels change during the life course of some syndromes [19]

On the influence personality, it has been said: "Jaspers considered there is a subtle change in personality due to the illness itself; and this creates the condition for the development of the delusional atmosphere in which the delusional intuition arises" [20]

Cultural factors have "a decisive influence in shaping delusions". [21] For example, delusions of guilt and punishment are frequent in a Western, Christian country like Austria, but not in Pakistan - where it is more likely persecution. It says cultural factors have a decisive influence in shaping delusions. [22] . In a series of case studies, delusions of guilt and punishment were shown in Austria as well and this is with Parkinson's patients treated with l-dopa - a dopamine agonist.[23]

See also

Further reading

  • Bell, V., Halligan, P.W. & Ellis, H. (2003) Beliefs about delusions. The Psychologist, 16(8), 418-423. full text
  • Blackwood NJ, Howard RJ, Bentall RP, Murray RM. (2001) Cognitive neuropsychiatric models of persecutory delusions. American Journal of Psychiatry, 158 (4), 527-39. Full text
  • Coltheart, M. & Davies, M. (2000) (Eds.) Pathologies of belief. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22136-0
  • Persaud, R. (2003) From the Edge of the Couch: Bizarre Psychiatric Cases and What They Teach Us About Ourselves. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-81346-3.

References

  1. ^ Jaspers (General Psychopathology, Volume 1), p. 95
  2. ^ Jaspers (General Psychopathology, Volume 1), p. 106
  3. ^ a b Source: http://www.minddisorders.com/Br-Del/Delusions.html
  4. ^ Myin-Germeys, I., Nicolson, N.A. & Delespaul, P.A.E.G. (2001) The context of delusional experiences in the daily life of patients with schizophrenia. Psychological Medicine, 31, 489-498.
  5. ^ Spitzer, M. (1990) On defining delusions. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31 (5), 377-97
  6. ^ Young, A.W. (2000).Wondrous strange: The neuropsychology of abnormal beliefs. In M. Coltheart & M. Davis (Eds.) Pathologies of belief (pp.47-74). Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22136-0
  7. ^ Jones, E. (1999) The phenomenology of abnormal belief. Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology, 6, 1-16.
  8. ^ Maher, B.A. (1988) Anomalous experience and delusional thinking: The logic of explanations. In T. Oltmanns and B. Maher (eds) Delusional Beliefs. New York: Wiley Interscience. ISBN 0-471-83635-4
  9. ^ AJ Giannini. Use of fiction in therapy. Psychiaric Times. 18(7):56, 2001
  10. ^ AJ Giannini. Afterword. (in) PJ Farmer. Red Orc's Rage.NY, Tor Books, 1991, pp.279-282.
  11. ^ David, A.S. (1999) On the impossibility of defining delusions. Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology, 6 (1), 17-20
  12. ^ Sims, Andrew (2002). Symptoms in the mind: an introduction to descriptive psychopathology. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. pp. 127. ISBN 0-7020-2627-1. 
  13. ^ Morimoto K, Miyatake R, Nakamura M, Watanabe T, Hirao T, Suwaki H (June 2002). "Delusional disorder: molecular genetic evidence for dopamine psychosis". Neuropsychopharmacology 26 (6): 794–801. doi:10.1016/S0893-133X(01)00421-3. PMID 12007750. http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v26/n6/full/1395864a.html. 
  14. ^ Gender Identity Disorder delusions (which the DSM says are rare - see under Gender Identity Disorder)Lothstein LM (September 1982). "Amphetamine abuse and transsexualism". J. Nerv. Ment. Dis. 170 (9): 568–71. PMID 7108506. 
  15. ^ Pillai K, Kraya N (February 2000). "Psychostimulants, adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and morbid jealousy". Aust N Z J Psychiatry 34 (1): 160–3. doi:10.1046/j.1440-1614.2000.00694.x. PMID 11185930. http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=0004-8674&date=2000&volume=34&issue=1&spage=160. 
  16. ^ The subject of the large recreational amphetamine dose had an unconfirmed zero sperm count.Although true transsexuals sometimes have low sperm counts, one journal says amphetamine affects overall fertility in mice only at very high doses Yamamoto Y, Yamamoto K, Hayase T (October 1999). "Effect of methamphetamine on male mice fertility". J. Obstet. Gynaecol. Res. 25 (5): 353–8. PMID 10533332.  (It was important to include this as true transsexuals are known for low sperm count and this information may counter depression in someone who has this) - showing how the state of dopamine must be at a rare high
  17. ^ Journal of Affective Disorders Volume 48, Issue 1, 1 February 1998, Pages 83-86
  18. ^ Age at onset of delusional disorder is dependent on the delusional theme Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Volume 97, Issue 2, Date: February 1998, Pages: 122-124 N. Yamada, S. Nakajima, T. Noguchi
  19. ^ Family functioning and parent general health in families of adolescents with major depressive disorder Journal of Affective Disorders, Volume 48, Issue 1, 1 February 1998, Pages 1-13 Alison Tamplin, Ian M. Goodyer*-, Joe Herbert
  20. ^ Sims, Andrew (2002). Symptoms in the mind: an introduction to descriptive psychopathology. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders. pp. 128. ISBN 0-7020-2627-1. 
  21. ^ Draguns JG, Tanaka-Matsumi J (July 2003). "Assessment of psychopathology across and within cultures: issues and findings". Behav Res Ther 41 (7): 755–76. PMID 12781244. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0005796702001900. 
  22. ^ Stompe T, Friedman A, Ortwein G, et al (1999). "Comparison of delusions among schizophrenics in Austria and in Pakistan". Psychopathology 32 (5): 225–34. doi:10.1159/000029094. PMID 10494061. http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=psp32225. 
  23. ^ Birkmayer W, Danielczyk W, Neumayer E, Riederer P (1972). "The balance of biogenic amines as condition for normal behaviour" (PDF). J. Neural Transm. 33 (2): 163–78. doi:10.1007/BF01260902. PMID 4643007. http://www.springerlink.com/index/N11474QQ25R5U236.pdf. 

Cited text

  • Jaspers, K. (1913/1997) General Psychopathology: Volume 1. Johns Hopkins. ISBN 0-8018-5775-9

Translations: Delusion
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - fejlopfattelse, selvbedrag, vrangforestilling

Français (French)
n. - illusion, délire, (Psych) fantasme, hallucination, psychose paranoïaque

Deutsch (German)
n. - Irreführung, Einbildung, Betrogensein, Illusion, (Psychiatrie) Wahnvorstellung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - πλάνη, (αυτ)απάτη

Español (Spanish)
n. - ilusión, engaño, delirio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - illusion, vanföreställning

中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
迷惑, 错觉, 欺瞒

中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 迷惑, 錯覺, 欺瞞

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 기만, 망상, 공상

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تضليل, ضلال, وهم, انخداع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הטעיה, התעיה, הולכת שולל, דיעה שגויה, אמונה כוזבת, תעייה, שיגיון, אמונה כוזבת איתנה למרות הוכחות נגדיות, בייחוד בשל מחלת-רוח (פסיכולוגיה)‬


 
 

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