Academic literature on the topic 'Persecution delusions'

In this paper given to the Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, Winnicott describes the state of normal and more severe or psychotic depression from various standpoints. He asserts that depression has value for human growth if the suffering, guilt and mourning related to it can be accomplished satisfactorily. Managing mood variations is an achievement, especially when deep hate is in conflict with the need to love and be loved. Features impeding successful management of depression are failures in the organization of the ego or delusions of persecution operating in the patient. Clinical examples are given.

Using as a frame the famous case of Daniel M’Naghten, who suffered from delusions of persecution, this chapter offers a theory of insanity as lost agency, according to which a person is insane if he acts but does not experience himself as the author of his actions. Insofar as the application of the actus reus and mens rea requirements presuppose that the defendant acted with a sense of agency, and insofar as actus reus and mens rea are limits on a democratic state’s authority to ascribe guilt, acting without a sense of agency constitutes another limit on the state’s authority. If a defendant acted without a sense of agency, he is beyond the authority of a democratic state to ascribe guilt to any criminal choice he makes while lacking a sense of agency. Before reaching this conclusion, the chapter explores and criticizes the law’s prevailing account of insanity, which grounds insanity in an incapacity, as well as a proposed alternative account, which grounds insanity in irrationality. After then elaborating on the idea of insanity as lost agency, it compares insanity to other defects of consciousness (hypnosis, sleepwalking, and multiple personality disorder).

Paranoia/delusional disorder is unique in psychiatry in that it is virtually a newly discovered illness, yet much of the fundamental descriptive work was done a century or more ago. This long hiatus means that most practitioners have little knowledge or experience of the disorder, and the few who are aware of it usually only see a small part of the fabric. The dermatologist treats a case of delusional parasitosis, the cosmetic surgeon has an impossible patient wth a dysmorphic delusion, the lawyer does not know what to do with a totally unreasonable litigant, the police officer has to deal with a jealous murderer or an erotomanic stalker, and the personnel officer has an employee who is convinced his fellow workers are persecuting him, etc. How can we draw all this scattered material together and add it to the psychiatric literature to make a whole cloth? The answer is largely by consciousness raising and education. Kendler, an authority in this field, has said, ‘The paranoid disorders may be the third great group of functional psychoses, along with affective disorder and schizophrenia’. If he is correct, it is imperative that we hone our diagnostic and treatment skills in order to improve the help we might offer to delusional disorder sufferers and to facilitate research which is so badly needed.

Paranoid Schizophrenia chronic mental illnesses according to DSM-IVTR characterized by the presence of delusion of persecution, suspicious, distrusting, guarded, reserved, tensed, and also sometimes hostile or aggressive. Patients also perceive exaggerated warmth and friendship by the professionals as attempt at bribery, manipulation or exploitation. But therapeutic relationship between patient and the professional is integral to the recovery process and the outcome. Good communication on the part of health care professionals is an essential element in developing the strong practitioner-patient relationship necessary in the treatment of schizophrenia. Professionals are usually at a look out for tools to build a working alliance best used in such cases. Usually behavioural therapy, supportive therapy and family therapy are used for such patients. But sometimes with chronic and resistant client will get stuck at the initial rapport itself. At this stage probably art therapy as an advance intervention strategy to work with patient as an advanced intervention strategies and treatment.

Paranoid Schizophrenia chronic mental illnesses according to DSM-IVTR characterized by the presence of delusion of persecution, suspicious, distrusting, guarded, reserved, tensed, and also sometimes hostile or aggressive. Patients also perceive exaggerated warmth and friendship by the professionals as attempt at bribery, manipulation or exploitation. But therapeutic relationship between patient and the professional is integral to the recovery process and the outcome. Good communication on the part of health care professionals is an essential element in developing the strong practitioner-patient relationship necessary in the treatment of schizophrenia. Professionals are usually at a look out for tools to build a working alliance best used in such cases. Usually behavioural therapy, supportive therapy and family therapy are used for such patients. But sometimes with chronic and resistant client will get stuck at the initial rapport itself. At this stage probably art therapy as an advance intervention strategy to work with patient as an advanced intervention strategies and treatment.

Patricia Casey’s chapter argues that up until recently there was no tradition of a questioning laity, or indeed, clergy, in the Irish Church. Centuries of persecution had brought priests and laity closer, even though they were never viewed as equals. A coalescence of events at home and abroad in the form of the sexual revolution, the rise of Communism, the reforms of Vatican II, created a Western Church where personal choice took precedence over the dictates of Rome. In Ireland, certain myths such as Catholic guilt, the links between celibacy and paedophilia, the death of God, the delusional nature of all religions, began to gain traction. The clerical abuse scandals served to reinforce hostility towards the Church and to add weight to the aforementioned myths, which has resulted in a society that is becoming increasingly impervious to the Word of God. Casey sees the need for Irish people to become educated about their faith so as to be in a position to speak to a secular audience and to find space for their Christian faith.