Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T08:24:35.474Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Delusion, the overvalued idea and religious beliefs: A comparative analysis of their characteristics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2018

Edgar Jones*
Affiliation:
UMDS Division of Psychiatry, Guy s Hospital, London
J. P. Watson
Affiliation:
UMDS Division of Psychiatry, Guy s Hospital, London
*
Dr Edgar Jones, Division of Psychiatry, UMDS, Guy's Hospital, London SEI 9RT

Abstract

Background

The study sought to investigate the form of the delusion in schizophrenia and the overvalued idea in anorexia, employing a range of belief characteristics to discover whether differences could be detected between them, and how they stood in general relationship to the religious beliefs of normals.

Method

A belief rating scale was devised with 12 characteristics, and completed by 20 schizophrenics, 20 anorectics, and 20 normal controls. Comparisons were drawn between populations using the Mann-Whitney test, and different types of belief were contrasted within diagnostic groups using each subject as their own control by repeated-measures MANOVA.

Results

The schizophrenic delusion was differentiated from the overvalued idea in anorexia by a number of variables, which also served to distinguish both phenomena from religious beliefs held by normals. The schizophrenic delusion exhibited many of the qualities of an initial (or observational) belief, when its content suggested that it should manifest those of a derived belief. The anorectic overvalued idea, although occasionally an initial belief in terms of its content, was typically held in the form of a derived belief.

Conclusions

A wider range of characteristics is required to define all the differences between delusion and the overvalued idea, and these have implications for belief modification programmes.

Type
Papers
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 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

Bentall, R. P., Kinderman, P. & Kaney, S. (1994) The self, attributional processes and abnormal beliefs: towards a model of persecutory delusions. Behavioural Research and Therapy, 32, 331341.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berrios, G. (1991) Delusions as ‘wrong beliefs’: a conceptual history. British Journal of Psychiatry 159 (suppl. 14), 613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brett-Jones, J., Garety, P. & Hemsley, D. (1987) Measuring delusional experiences: a method and its application. British Journal of Clinical Psychology 26, 257265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, R. W. & Braff, D L. (1991) Delusions: a review and integration. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 17, 633647.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Churchland, P. M. (1979) Scientific Realism and the Plasticity of Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fulford, K. M. W. (1989) Moral Theory and Medical Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Garety, P. A. (1985) Delusions: problems in definition and measurement. British Medical Psychology, 58, 2534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P. A. & Hemsley, D R. (1987) Characteristics of delusional experience. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences. 236, 294298.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P. A. & Hemsley, D R. (1994) Delusions, Investigations into the Psychology of Delusional Reasoning. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press Google Scholar
Garety, P. A. & Hemsley, D R., Everitt, B. S. & Hemsley, D. R., (1988) The characteristics of delusions: a cluster analysis of deluded subjects. European Archives of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences. 237, 112114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garety, P. A. & Hemsley, D R., Hemsley, D R. & Wessely, S. (1991) Reasoning in deluded schizophrenic and paranoid patients: biases in performance on a probabilistic inference task. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 179, 194210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hemsley, D. R. & Garety, P. A. (1986) The formation and maintenance of delusions: a Bayesian analysis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 5156.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huq, S. F., Garety, P. A. & Hemsley, EX R. (1988) Probabilistic judgements in deluded and non-deluded subjects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40A, 801812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaney, S. & Bentall, R. P. (1989) Persecutory delusions and attributional style. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 62, 191198.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Milton, F., Patwa, V. K. & Hafner, R. J. (1978) Confrontation vs. belief modification in persistently deluded patients. British Journal of Medical Psychology. 51, 127130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oltmanns, T. F. & Maher, B. A. (eds) (1988) Delusional Beliefs. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Roberts, G. (1992) The origins of delusion. British Journal of Psychiatry, 161, 293308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, P. & Jones, O. R. (1986) The Philosophy of Mind. An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, M. (1990) The phenomenology of delusions. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 31, 377397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watts, F. N., Powell, G. E. & Austin, S. V. (1973) The modification of abnormal beliefs. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 46, 359363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Winters, K. C. & Neale, J. M. (1983) Delusions and delusional thinking in psychotics: a review of the literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 3, 227253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Health Organization (1992) The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders. Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.