Paranoia

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This article is about the thought process. For other uses, see Paranoia (disambiguation) and Paranoid (disambiguation).
"Paranoiac" redirects here. For the film, see Paranoiac (film).
Paranoia
Classification and external resources
ICD-10 F20.0, F22.0, F22.8
ICD-9 295.3, 297.1, 297.2
MeSH D010259

Paranoia /ˌpærəˈnɔɪə/ (adjective: paranoid /ˈpærənɔɪd/) is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. (e.g. "Everyone is out to get me.") This contrasts with phobias, which also involve irrational fear, but usually no blame. Making false accusations and the general distrust of others also frequently accompany paranoia. For example, an incident most people would view as an accident or coincidence, a paranoid person might believe was intentional.

History[edit]

The word paranoia comes from the Greek παράνοια (paranoia), "madness"[1] and that from παρά (para), "beside, by"[2] and νοῦς (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 this 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.[citation needed] 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'.

According to Phelan, M. Padraig, W. Stern, J (2000)[4] paranoia and paraphrenia are debated entities that were detached from dementia praecox by Kraepelin, who explained paranoia as a continuous systematized delusion arising much later in life with no presence of either hallucinations or a deteriorating course, paraphrenia as an identical syndrome to paranoia but with hallucinations. 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.

Use in modern psychiatry[edit]

In the DSM-IV-TR, paranoia is diagnosed in the form of:[5]

According to clinical psychologist P. J. McKenna, "As a noun, paranoia denotes a disorder which has been argued in and out of existence, and whose clinical features, course, boundaries, and virtually every other aspect of which is controversial. Employed as an adjective, paranoid has become attached to a diverse set of presentations, from paranoid schizophrenia, through paranoid depression, to paranoid personality—not to mention a motley collection of paranoid 'psychoses', 'reactions', and 'states'—and this is to restrict discussion to functional disorders. Even when abbreviated down to the prefix para-, the term crops up causing trouble as the contentious but stubbornly persistent concept of paraphrenia."[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Notes
  1. ^ παράνοια, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  2. ^ παρά, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  3. ^ νόος, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on perseus Digital Library
  4. ^ Phelan, Michael; Wright, Padraig; Julian Stern (2000). Core psychiatry. Philadelphia: Saunders. ISBN 0-7020-2490-2. 
  5. ^ American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR: Fourth edition Text Revision) (2000) [1]
  6. ^ American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR: Fourth edition Text Revision) (2000) p.690
  7. ^ American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR: Fourth edition Text Revision) (2000) p.325
  8. ^ McKenna, P.J. (1997). Schizophrenia and related syndromes. Psychology Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-86377-790-5. 
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. ISBN 0-684-80285-6. 
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