The Martha Mitchell Effect: What is real is stranger than imagination

If we are talking about someone who thinks that they are trying to kill him, that the police have tapped his phone or who knows a truth that other people want to silence, it is easy for us to think that it is of someone with some form of delusional disorder.

But sometimes some of these people are telling something real that ends up being mistakenly considered the product of the mind and imagination. We are talking about cases in which there has been the martha mitchell effect, whose name is based on a true story.

• You may be interested in: "Delusional Disorder (Paranoid Psychosis): Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment"

delusion in psychopathology

To fully understand the Martha Mitchell effect, it is first necessary to reflect on what a delusion is.

Delirium is one of the most studied symptoms as regards the part of the psychopathology of thought content. It is understood as such one or those false and unlikely ideas or beliefs that the subject holds with total conviction despite the fact that the evidence may be against them.

Are extravagant ideas and beliefs, supported by the subject with great vehemence, lived as true and unchangeable that cause great discomfort and anguish in the individual.

The contents of the delusion are important, since they are closely linked at a symbolic level with the fears of the patient and her life experiences, as well as cultural aspects that have influenced her to have a mentality determined. Some examples include the idea of being followed or controlled, that the phenomena that occur are directed towards the subject, that our partner is unfaithful to us, that someone is totally in love with us, that we have deformities or that we are dead and decaying or that those around us are imposters posing as our similar.

How does delusion originate?

Why delusions arise is something that still does not have a clear answer. However, some of the leading hypotheses state that it is a cognitive elaboration and more or less structured which seeks to respond to an anomalous perception. The cognitive process carried out by those who suffer from them may be biased, but it may also be normal.

This means that in some cases establishing a limit between what is real and what is delusional can be more complex than it seems. And it is that despite the fact that its characteristics are generally visible and are strange from the outside, the truth is that if the facts are observed from the perception of the subject, they can have coherence and logic (after all, it is not impossible for someone to watch us to steal from us or to be unfaithful to us, for example). That is why on some occasions it is possible to identify a real fact as delusion. This is what happens in what is known as the Martha Mitchell effect.

• Related article: "The 12 most curious and shocking types of delusions"

The Martha Mitchell Effect

The Martha Mitchell effect is understood as that situation in which psychology and/or psychiatry professionals come to the conclusion that that a specific event reported by the patient is the product of a delusion or an altered state of consciousness, said event being TRUE.

The events in question usually refer to events with a low probability of occurrence, implausible and with a high level of implausibility, little shared by the social environment and with emphasis on the perception of the phenomenon as something self-referential and directed towards the person himself. Clear examples of this are the ideas of being persecuted by criminal gangs, being watched by the government or possessing information of great importance that someone wants to silence.

Martha Mitchell and the Watergate case

The name of this effect is based on a real case. Martha Mitchell was the wife of state attorney general John Mitchell, in the time of Richard Nixon. She was also a campaign assistant. This woman was well known in her time for her unstable personality, frequent outbursts and a presumed drinking problem.

Martha Mitchell also denounced on numerous occasions different irregularities produced by the administration, including corruption and assumptions such as espionage. However, her allegations were ignored due to delusions or other problems resulting from mental illness.

Some time later, the scandal of the Watergate case would come to light.. All the people who had humiliated Martha by trying to stigmatize her with the weight of mental illness had made a clear mistake. While some of the wrongdoing she mentioned was not proven, many of the corruptions that they had been taken for delusions or even attempts to attract attention turned out to have a basis real.

Why is it produced?

The reasons why the Martha Mitchell effect occurs are mainly its resemblance to delusions: the reported facts are implausible and usually refer to aspects that are difficult to assess objectively.

Besides, it is more likely that this diagnostic error will be reached if the person in question presents certain characteristics that make it more likely that it is a delusional perception or interpretation of reality.

For example, a person with a psychotic disorder already diagnosed, an individual who has previously suffered from delusions, a subject with a histrionic personality or someone who is addicted to substances with hallucinogenic effects. These are aspects that favor facts that are innocuous in principle to be processed in a distorted manner.