Cognitive approaches to delusions : A critical review of theories and evidence

Methods.The theoretical approachesto delusions proposedby Frith and colleagues (` theory of mind’ de®cits), Garety and colleagues (multi-factorial, but involving probabilistic reasoning biases) and Bentall and colleagues (attributional style and self-discrepancies) are summarised. The ®ndings of empirical papers directly relevant to these proposals are critically reviewed. These papers were identi®ed by computerised literature searches (for the years 1987±1997) and a hand search.