Posted by alexandra_k on October 21, 2005, at 15:48:23
In reply to Paranoid Delusions, posted by Glydin on October 21, 2005, at 9:15:35
If someone is delusional then they are supposed to have lost their ability to 'reality test' which means that they are certain that their delusion is true and they aren't so very amenable to evidence to the contrary.
To recognise that their belief is delusional (false, unfounded) would mean that... They wouldn't be delusional. Rather they would be having an obsessional idea or something like that.
But the road to conviction may be slow... So they might start thinking thoughts along those lines and the sense of conviction may come about slowly. I guess the trouble with paranoid deluisons is that people are typically untrusting of others so they aren't so likely to be sharing their thoughts rather just thinking through them themselves and becoming convinced by them.
One of my flatmates used to get delusional at times. She couldn't tell that that was what was happening to her but other people started to figure out some of the signs. It sounds like your aunt has epidodes of deluison that are induced by depression. So when her depression gets worse I guess other people know to be on the lookout for her becomming delusional.
Knowing that an idea is false / ungrounded means that someone has 'good insight'. That is supposed to lost in delusion (by definition) and it is this loss of ability to reality test that is supposed to differentiate psychotic phenomena (deluisons and hallucinations) from neurotic phenomena (obsessional ideas etc).
To the best of my knowledge this is the accepted line on deluison. But I could be a bit off...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:569769
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20051021/msgs/569922.html