Paranoia

Paranoia is a thought process heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Historically, this characterization was used to describe any delusional state.

History

The word paranoia comes from the Greek "παράνοια" (paranoia), "madness"^[1] and that from "παρά" (para), "beside, by"^[2] + "νόος" (noos), "mind"^[3]. The term was used to describe a mental illness in which a delusional belief is the sole or most prominent feature. In original attempt at classifying different forms of mental illness, Kraepelin used the term pure paranoia to describe a condition where a delusion was present, but without any apparent deterioration in intellectual abilities and without any of the other features of dementia praecox, the condition later renamed "schizophrenia". Notably, in his definition, the belief does not have to be persecutory to be classified as paranoid, so any number of delusional beliefs can be classified as paranoia. For example, a person who has the sole delusional belief that he is an important religious figure would be classified by Kraepelin as having 'pure paranoia'. Even at the present time, a delusion need not be suspicious or fearful to be classified as paranoid. A person might be diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic without delusions of persecution, simply because their delusions refer mainly to themselves, such as believing that they are a CIA agent or a famous member of royalty.

Use in psychiatry

In modern psychiatry, paranoia is diagnosed in the form of:^[4]

• paranoid personality disorder
• paranoid schizophrenia (a subtype of schizophrenia)
• persecutory delusions (a subtype of delusional disorder).

See also

References

Further reading

• Canetti, Elias (1962). Crowds and Power. Translated from the German by Carol Stewart. Gollancz, London. 1962.
• Farrell, John (2006). Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau. Cornell University Press.
• Freeman, D. & Garety, P. A. (2004). Paranoia: The Psychology of Persecutory Delusions. Hove: Psychology Press. ISBN 1-84169-522-X
• Igmade (Stephan Trüby et al., eds.), 5 Codes: Architecture, Paranoia and Risk in Times of Terror, Birkhäuser 2006. ISBN 3-7643-7598-1
• Kantor, Martin (2004). Understanding Paranoia: A Guide for Professionals, Families, and Sufferers. Westport: Praeger Press. ISBN 0-275-98152-5
• Munro, A. (1999). Delusional disorder. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-58180-X
• Sant, P. (2005). Delusional disorder. Punjab: Panjab University Chandigarh. ISBN 0-521-58180-X
• Sims, A. (2002). Symptoms in the mind: An introduction to descriptive psychopathology (3rd edition). Edinburgh: Elsevier Science Ltd. ISBN 0-7020-2627-1
• Siegel, Ronald K. (1994). Whispers: The Voices of Paranoia. New York: Crown.