Thread by @psychunseen

THREAD 1/

Finally got around to reading and really enjoyed this new paper by @JasperFeyaerts et al. that offers a critical view of traditional conceptualizations of delusions and the (mis)assumption of a delusional continuum.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33485408/

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It affirms my view that firmly distinguishing between delusions and delusion-like (and shared) beliefs is ultimately doomed, because we do not have coherent existing definitions of "delusions" nor for that matter "beliefs"

Here are my favorite quotations from this paper:

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"Jaspers... points towards the experiential context within which primary delusions originate. Whereas delusion-like ideas arise in intelligible ways from everyday experience, primary delusions develop... as "a transformation in our total awareness of reality."

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"Whereas ordinary beliefs are essentially entertained against a shared background of consensual reality, primary delusions, due to the transformation in awareness of reality, typically pertain to a private quasi- solipsistic domain of experience..."

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"...the finding of phenotypic continuity between delusions and ordinary beliefs might actually reveal more about the vagueness and selectivity of measures and concepts used in assessing these phenomena than it shows the continuous nature of delusional experience itself."

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"Experiential features that are essential for fleshing out formal characteristics of delusions involve, among others, their relation to altered self-consciousness, sense of reality, and intersubjectivity."

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"...delusions are not mere mistaken beliefs that can be recognised as such when set against the standard of everyday reality. They are elaborated expressions of a more global reorganisation and shift in several basis dimensions of reality experience..."

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"...including a person's core or minimal sense of selfhood, bodily awareness, lived time and space, interpersonal experience, and global sense of reality."

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"Delusions are attempts to frame and voice a dizzying complexity of experiential transformations. The viewpoints involved can be experienced as unshareable or even as essentially incomprehensible."

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