Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T07:45:40.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Formation of Maintenance of Delusions: a Bayesian Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

D. R. Hemsley  and
P. A. Garety
D. R. Hemsley*
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
P. A. Garety
Affiliation:
Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper argues that recent research on normal-belief formation is relevant to our understanding of the establishment and maintenance of delusions. Bayesian theory provides a normative model of the way in which evidence relevant to normal beliefs may be evaluated: this makes it possible to classify delusional beliefs in terms of deviations from optimal Bayesian inference. Some hypothetical forms of deviation appear to correspond closely to cognitive processes observed in some groups of deluded patients. Theories of the precise nature of the abnormal judgemental processes also have implications for psychological approaches to treatment of deluded patients. The role of hallucinations in the formation and/or maintenance of delusions and the extent to which the distortions of cognitive processes associated with delusions are content-specific or mood-specific are also considered.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 149 , Issue 1 , July 1986 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © 1986 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alloy, L B. & Tabachnik, N. (1984) Assessment of covariation by humans and animals: The joint influence of prior expectations and current situational information. Psychological Review, 91, 112–149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Arieti, S. (1974) Interpretation of Schizophrenia, 2nd ed. London: Crosby, Lockwood & Staples.Google Scholar
Bowir, G. H. (1981) Mood and Memory. American Psychologist, 36, 129–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, J. H. & Hemsley, D. R. (1984) Illusory correlations in paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenia. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 23, 225–226.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brett-Jones, J. (1984) Recovery From Delusions: A Methodological Study. Unpublished M.Phil, thesis: University of London.Google Scholar
Cameron, N. (1951) Perceptual organization and behaviour pathology In Perception: an Approach to Personality, eds. Blake, R. R. & Ramsey, G. V. New York: Ronald Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, L. J. & Chapman, J. P. (1973) Disordered Thought in Schizophrenia. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.Google Scholar
Claxton, G. (Ed.) (1980) Cognitive Psychology: New Directions. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Fischhoff, B. & Beyth-Marom, R. (1983) Hypothesis evaluation from a Bayesian perspective. Psychological Review, 90, 239–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischhoff, B., Slovic, P. & Lichtenstein, S. (1977) Knowing with certainty: The appropriateness of extreme confidence. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 3, 552–564.Google Scholar
Frith, C. D. (1979) Consciousness, information processing and schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 134, 225–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gruhle, H. W. (1915) Selbstschilderung and Einfuhlung. Zeitschrift für die gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie, 28, 148–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaspers, K. (1913) General Psychopathology. (Translated by Hoenig, J. & Hamilton, M. W., 1959). Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A. (Eds.) (1982) Judgement Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lichtenstein, S., Fischhoff, B. & Phillips, L. D. (1982) Calibration of probabilities: The state of the art to 1980 In Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds. Kahneman, D., Slovic, P. & Tversky, A. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maher, B. & Ross, J. S. (1984) Delusions In Comprehensive Handbook of Psychopathology. ed. Adams, H. E. & Suther, P. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Milton, F., Patwa, K. & Hafner, R. J. (1978) Confrontation vs. belief modification in persistently deluded patients. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 51, 127–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moor, J. H. & Tucker, G. J. (1979) Delusions: Analysis and criteria. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 20, 388–393.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullen, P. (1979) Phenomenology of disordered mental function In Essentials of Postgraduate Psychiatry, Chapter 2, eds. Hill, P., Murray, R. & Thorley, G. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Rachman, S. (1983) Irrational thinking, with special reference to cognitive therapy. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 5, 63–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, G. & Taylor, P. J. (1985) Some cognitive correlates of schizophrenic illnesses. Psychological Medicine, 15, 81–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Volans, P. J. (1976) Styles of decision making and probability appraisal in selected obsessional and phobic patients. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 15, 305–317.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winters, K. C. & Neale, J. M. (1983) Delusions and delusional thinking in psychotics: a review of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review. 3, 227–253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zajonc, R. B. (1980) Feeling and thinking. Preferences need no inferences. American Psychologist, 35, 151–175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.