The 12 most curious and shocking types of delusions

Delusions They are a phenomenon that for decades has aroused the interest of psychiatrists and psychologists. After all, we have long believed that we tend to analyze the information that comes to us through our senses rationally, and that if we are deceived, it will be because our eyes or ears have betrayed.

However, the existence of delusions shows that we can interpret things in a way profoundly wrong even when our senses give us information perfectly trustworthy.

Strange delusions: disturbances when interpreting reality

Unlike what happens in hallucinations, in which alterations are perceived in the information perceived by the different senses of the body, in delusions what is strange and not very credible is the way in which ideas are organized, that is, the way in which reality is interpreted.

To understand this idea, nothing better than to see some examples of the most curious and extreme delusions of which there is evidence in pathological cases.

Types of delusions (and their characteristics)

One way to classify delusions is to use the categories of non-pathological delusions and bizarre delusions. Here are some examples belonging to the second category: delusions that are so strange that they go against what that we know about what reality is like and that are extremely unbelievable even before their veracity has been put to the test.

1. Cotard syndrome

People with Cotard Syndrome have one of the strangest delusions known: they think they are dead, physically or spiritually. This delusion can take many forms: some people believe that they are rotting inside out of shape. literal, while others simply believe that the plane of reality in which they live is that of the dead.

Usually this type of delusion is accompanied by abulia, that is, the pathological absence of motivation or initiative. After all, there are few things that can be meaningful to someone who thinks he is dead and who somehow feels that he does not belong "to this world."

• If you are interested in knowing more about this syndrome, you can read more about it in this article.

2. Enemy Complex

People who manifest Enemy Complex hold the delusional idea that they are surrounded by enemies who seek an opportunity to hurt them physically, psychologically, or symbolically. In this way, a good part of the actions of others will be interpreted as acts directed at oneself; Scratching your nose can be a signal for another enemy to prepare to attack us, looking in our direction can be part of an espionage strategy, etc. It is a belief related to persecution mania.

3. Thought diffusion

People who sustain this form of delusion believe that their thoughts are audible to others, that is to say, they produce sound waves that can be recorded by ears and by electronic devices just as it would occur with any noise. Of course, this delusional idea produces great frustration and anxiety, since it leads to acting as a "police officer mental "and self-censorship even though you do not have full control over what crosses your mind.

4. Thought reading

In this type of delusion I miss the person believes that others (or a part of people, regardless of whether they are near or far) can read their thoughts through a kind of telepathic contact. This belief often translates into the appearance of rituals created to avoid this supposed thought reading: repeating "protective words" over and over, wrapping your head in something, etc.

5. Thought theft

People who express this delusion believe that someone is stealing some ideas right after they are created. It is a sensation similar to the phenomenon of "having something on the tip of the tongue", although in this case this is perceived as a process in stages: first that thought is created and then it disappears to go to another place that is unknown.

6. Insertion of thought

In this delusion is sustained the belief that part of the thoughts that circulate through your head have been introduced into your own mind by an alien entity, in a similar way to what is posed in the film Inception (in Spanish, "Origin").

7. Capgras syndrome

One of the symptoms of this rare syndrome is the belief that someone important in our lives has been replaced by another person practically identical to the previous one. Patients with this strange delusion believe that only they realize the deception and that the impostor or impostor has managed to make everyone else not aware of the substitution.

Thus, although the person recognizes in the other's features the objective features that serve to identify someone's face, this information does not produce the normal emotional reaction.

• If you want to know more about Capgras Syndrome, you can read this article.

8. Fregoli syndrome

This syndrome is associated with a type of delirium similar to the previous one. As in the Capgras cases, a delusional form of false identification is also given here: In Fregoli Syndrome, the person believes that all the others, or a good part of the people around them, are actually a single character that is constantly changing its appearance. This belief easily leads to other delusions based on the idea that someone is chasing us.

9. Delusions of greatness

People with delusions of grandeursincerely believe that they have qualities that are far above what would be expected of a human being- the ability to make everyone happy, to always deliver the best conversations ever, etc. Any action they take, no matter how anecdotal or routine, will be seen by them as a great contribution to the community.

It is important to emphasize the fact that people with this type of delusion really believe in their superior abilities, and that it is not a question of giving the best image of yourself to others by deliberately exaggerating your features positive.

10. Reduplicative paramnesia

People with this kind of paramnesia believe that one place or landscape has been replaced by another, or that the same place is in two places at the same time. For example, someone who is visiting a new building in Madrid may believe that this place is actually the Buenos Aires nursery that he used to go to during his first years of life.

• An example of this strange delusion we have in the case explained in this article.

11. Delusion of control

Who presents delirium of control believes that it is a kind of puppet in the hands of a superior force that controls it. This can be expressed by saying that there is someone who is possessing their own body, or who is receiving a series of instructions telepathically and that one has the obligation to fulfill them.

12. Delusion from The Truman Show

In the movie The Truman Show, Jim Carrey plays a man who has been raised on a gigantic television set in form of a city, surrounded by cameras and actors who play a role, without him having account. This work of fiction served as inspiration to the brothers Ian and Joel Gold, the first philosopher and the second psychiatrist, who in 2008 They used this name to designate cases of people who believed they were living in a televised fiction in which the only real character is them. This delusion has characteristics of delusions of grandeur and persecution mania.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association (APA). (2002). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TRBarcelona: Masson.
• Brave, C. (2002): Hallucinations and delusions. Madrid: Synthesis.