Persecutory delusions are proposed to be a defence against low self-esteem reaching conscious awareness (Bentall, Corcoran, Howard, Blackwood, & Kinderman, 2001). Key predictions of this proposal are that individuals with persecutory delusions will have lower implicit self-esteem and equivalent levels of explicit self-esteem compared to healthy controls. This study aims to test the predictions ...

Theoretical models postulate an important role of attributional style (AS) in the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions and other positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, current research has gathered conflicting findings. In a cross-sectional design, patients with persistent positive symptoms of schizophrenia (n = 258) and healthy controls (n = 51) completed a revised version ...

BACKGROUND Persecutory delusions are a key psychotic experience. A reasoning style known as 'jumping to conclusions' (JTC) - limited information gathering before reaching certainty in decision making - has been identified as a contributory factor in the occurrence of delusions. The cognitive processes that underpin JTC need to be determined in order to develop effective interventions for delusi...

A popular approach to monothematic delusions in the recent literature has been to argue that monothematic delusions involve broadly rational responses to highly unusual experiences. Campbell (2001) calls this the empiricist approach to monothematic delusions, and argues that it cannot account for the links between meaning and rationality. In place of empiricism, Campbell offers a rationalist ac...

WE SEE TWO CLUSTERS of questions arising out of the papers in this issue. The first cluster concerns the role of experience in the explanation of delusions: Do abnormal experiences play a central role in accounting for delusions, or are they at best only marginal? And if experience plays a central role in accounting for delusions, exactly what role does it play? The second cluster of questions ...

BACKGROUND Problems with the diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia have led for a call to change strategy and focus on individual psychotic experiences. In recent years, research on delusions has led the way. AIMS To update our 1999 review of almost 40 studies on delusions. METHOD A systematic literature search was conducted of reasoning and affective processes related to delusions. RE...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Delusions in Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be associated with functional impairment. No studies to date have used functional instruments sensitive to changes in frontal executive function, possibly underestimating the impact. METHODS Patients with AD with and without delusions were administered cognitive tests and questionnaires to assess depression and quality of life. Caregiv...

BACKGROUND Delusions of control are among the most distinctive and characteristic symptoms of schizophrenia. Several theories have been proposed that implicate aberrant communication between spatially disparate brain regions in the etiology of this symptom. Given that white matter fasciculi represent the anatomical infrastructure for long-distance communication in the brain, the present study i...

The objectives of the present study were to examine the degree of co-existence of hallucinations and delusions in the nonclinical population. In addition, we wished to investigate the role of metacognitions in hallucinations and delusions. Finally, we explored the relative roles of positive and negative metacognitive beliefs in proneness to hallucinations and delusions. Three hundred and thirty...

To what extent do self-deception and delusion overlap? In this paper we argue that both self-deception and delusions can be understood in folk-psychological terms. "Motivated" delusions, just like self-deception, can be described as beliefs driven by personal interests. If self-deception can be understood folk-psychologically because of its motivational component, so can motivated delusions. No...