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The Defensive Function of Persecutory Delusions

Evidence from Attribution Tasks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Helen M. Lyon ,
Sue Kaney  and
Richard P. Bentall
Helen M. Lyon
Affiliation:
Hafed Las Community Mental Health Team, Llwar-y-Dref, Ynys Mon, Gwynedd
Sue Kaney
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, Whelan Building, University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX
Richard P. Bentall*
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Psychology, Whelan Building, University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Abnormalities of ‘social’ reasoning were investigated in patients suffering from persecutory delusions and in matched depressed and normal controls using transparent (obvious) and opaque (unobvious) tests of attributional style. Whereas depressed and normal subjects yielded similar causal inferences for both attributional measures, the deluded subjects showed a marked shift in internality, attributing negative outcomes to external causes on the transparent Attributional Style Questionnaire but, on the more opaque Pragmatic Inference Task, attributing negative outcomes to internal causes and thus showing a cognitive style resembling that of the depressed group. This finding, interpreted in terms of explicit versus implicit judgements, supports the hypothesis that delusions function as a defence against underlying feelings of low self-esteem.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 164 , Issue 5 , May 1994 , pp. 637 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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