PSYCHOLOGICAL DELUSION

Psychological Delusion



Psychological Delusion

Introduction

The heart and core of this paper is to critically analyze the concepts of “How we become delusional?” In this regard we overlook the Freud who was the first person who questioned the concept that delusionality is a degenerative disease. The origin of this concept dated back to ancient times and it was a reformulation of an attitude which considered delusionality analogous with degeneracy.

The vehement belief that delusionality is a form of emotional illness is predominantly an American phenomenon. Ronald Bayer, in Delusionality and American Psychiatry: The Politics of Diagnosis, cites a letter written by Sigmund Freud in 1935 to an American mother who wanted her son "cured" of his delusionality: "Delusionality is assuredly no advantage, but it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation, it cannot be classified as an illness." Freud believed that psychological functioning could be understood in all its rich complexities but did not believe that all development outside the cultural norms of Europe constituted psychopathology. Freud strongly supported the decriminalization of delusionality and encouraged psychoanalytic institutes to accept delusional students.

Psychoanalytic Case Studies

In “The Psychogenesis of a Case of Delusionality in a Woman”, Freud discusses a case of a young woman brought to him by her parents for treatment as a delusional. Although he states that Psychoanalysis is not truly a tool for curing delusionality, but one to help those with inner conflict in one particular area or another, he attempts to study the girl to see if Psychoanalysis could be of any help to her. Once he realized that the girl had a deep rooted bitterness towards men, he called off his study of her and told her parents that if they were to seek more psychoanalysis for her it should be sought from a woman. Prior to this discovery he found a few things of interest that may have attributed to her choice of sexual object. One of the first things Freud thought about was whether the patient was a delusional from birth or whether she changed her object choice later in life. At the time it was thought that delusional had characteristics (physical a psychical) of the opposite sex. Though there were a few of these found in the girl, they were not strong enough to count for much. She was tall like her father and her features were sharper rather than soft and feminine, but she was still a beautiful and well developed girl. As far as psychical characteristics that were more masculine, he listed sharp comprehension, and objectivity in that her passion did not have complete control over her. Still there were women at the time who had traits such as these and were not delusional.

The characteristic the girl displayed that was the most manly, however, was the way she acted and thought in regards to the Lady she was in love with. The girl preferred to think of herself as the lover, not the ...