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After reading this article you will learn about Delusion:- 1. Concept of Delusion 2. Types of Delusion.
Concept of Delusion:
A delusion is a persistent false belief. It is impervious to all opposing arguments. A patient subject to a delusion cannot be shaken out of his false belief by the most convincing arguments. A person may believe that he is Hitler, or Napoleon or the Emperor of the world.
He is amenable to reason in all matters except this false belief. An illusion is a false sense-impression. An hallucination is a vivid memory image mistaken for a sensation. It is a subjective perception. But a delusion is a false belief a delusion may arise from wishful thinking.
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A person tends to believe in what his conative tendencies impel him to conceive. In normal persons delusions are due to false observation, wrong information, or faulty reasoning. They are facilitated by some affective tendency.
Belief arises from a judgement. Judgement is not a purely intellectual process. It has a conative aspect. It is actuated and sustained by some motive, some striving towards a goal. A delusion, which is a false belief, is actuated and sustained by a conative tendency seeking a goal.
A delusion is a persistent false belief. An hallucination is an image invested with sensory vividness. A delusion may be accompanied with hallucination. The distinction between them lies in the fact that delusions are persistent false beliefs, whereas hallucinations are false subjective perceptions.
Thus, if a patient sees blood dripping from a sword which has no objective reality, he has an hallucination, but if he persistently believes that he is the Emperor of the world, he has a delusion.
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An hallucination is a memory image taken for a sensation. It is temporary and not accompanied by strong belief. But delusion is permanent; it persists so long as the patient is not cured of it. In normal persons delusions arise from false observation, or information, or from false reasoning.
In most cases their observation and reasoning are distorted by an affective tendency, which facilitates imagination their false beliefs. The continuance of the affective tendency causes the persistence of their false beliefs. Delusions are often found in abnormal persons.
Types of Delusion:
(i) Delusion Grandeur:
Two prominent kinds of delusions are generally recognized: grandiose and persecutory. In delusions of grandeur the patient believes that he is Napoleon, Hitler, or even God. The victim of grandiose delusions has become an extreme introvert, and lost his grip on reality.
He wrongly believes that he is the strongest, wealthiest or the greatest man on earth. These systematic delusions indicate neurotic organization and may take a long tune to develop into the extreme form.
They are due to some kind of mental functioning which results in the innocent self- aggrandisement of youth and ordinary flattering day-dreams of adults. “Conquering hero” day-dreams, in the extreme form, resemble the delusions of grandeur found in paranoia, a form of insanity.
(ii) Delusion of Persecution:
In this kind of delusion the patient wrongly believes that he is being pursued or attacked by powerful foes. Some forms of delusion of persecution have many features in common with the “suffering hero” day-dreams. The patient who has committed some grave offence, suffers from a secret sense of guilt and a feeling of worthlessness.
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He is unduly sensitive, and misinterprets all actions of others are conspiring against him. They are plotting against his life or culminating him or his family. He cannot shake off his false belief.
Both grandiose and persecutory delusions are associated with hallucinations. A patient who has a persistent false belief that he is the Emperor of Germany, hears voice that hail him as the rightful owner of the throne. Or, one who wrongly believes that he is being constantly pursued by his foes hears voices that abuse him or threaten his death.
Delusions of grandeur are very frequently combined with delusions of persecution. A patient may wrongly believe that he is the Emperor of Germany, but that an organised conspiracy exists to deprive him of his birth-right. Sometimes the patient distorts and misinterprets every incident of his life and experience until it is fitted into his delusional scheme.
(iii) Delusion of Reference:
This kind of delusion is an important variety of delusion of persecution. The patient believes that every trifling event that happens in the environment is designed to injure him. If two persons are talking, they are conspiring against him.
If the furniture is displaced it is a signal to do him harm. If there is a spot on his dinner plate, it is proof positive that poison has been mixed with his food. He misconstrues all events to fit them into his delusional scheme.
(iv) Self-Condemnatory Delusions:
In self-condemnatory delusions persons condemn themselves for their poverty, unworthiness, sins, and so on. An individual may consider himself to be a brainless idiot, and curse himself.
J. D. Page points out that in hypochondrical delusions an individual is concerned with imaginary physical or mental diseases.