Delusions Are Often Not-So-Delusional After All
Nautilus | Science Connected • • health
Key Points:
- A recent study published in The Lancet Psychiatry explored the nature of psychotic delusions, emphasizing that they represent a profound shift in how individuals experience reality, influenced by emotions, personal history, and bodily sensations.
- Researchers conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 10 young adults experiencing early psychosis, finding that delusions commonly involved persecutory, reference (feeling special messages), and grandiose or religious themes.
- Delusions were linked to significant changes in perception, time, self-other boundaries, mood, and existential outlook, suggesting they are a narrative constructed by the mind to make sense of a disrupted embodied experience.
- Participants’ delusions often followed early emotional trauma and major life stressors, with coping mechanisms including obsessive meaning-se
