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A delusion [a] is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. [2] As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other misleading effects of perception, as individuals with those beliefs are able to change or readjust their beliefs upon reviewing the evidence.
The delusion, if acted out, often leads to behaviors which are abnormal, and out of character, although perhaps understandable in light of the delusional beliefs. Other people who know the individual observe that the belief and behavior are uncharacteristic and alien. Additional characteristic of delusional disorder include the following: [18]
Ideas of reference and delusions of reference describe the phenomenon of an individual experiencing innocuous events or mere coincidences [1] and believing they have strong personal significance. [2] It is "the notion that everything one perceives in the world relates to one's own destiny", usually in a negative and hostile manner.
However, similar delusional beliefs, often singularly or more rarely reported, are sometimes also considered to be part of the delusional misidentification syndrome. For example: Mirrored-self misidentification is the belief that one's reflection in a mirror is some other person.
While non-delusional grandiose beliefs are somewhat common—occurring in at least 10% of the general population [3] —and often [vague] positively influence a person's self-esteem, in some cases they may cause a person distress, in which case such beliefs may be clinically evaluated and diagnosed as a psychiatric disorder.
Folie à deux (French for 'madness of two'), [1] also called shared psychosis [3] or shared delusional disorder (SDD), is a rare psychiatric syndrome in which symptoms of a delusional belief [4] are "transmitted" from one individual to another.
Delusions are "abnormal beliefs" and may be bizarre (considered impossible to be true), or non-bizarre (possible, but considered by the clinician as highly improbable). Beliefs about being poisoned, being followed, marital infidelity or a conspiracy in the workplace are examples of non-bizarre beliefs that may be considered delusions. [ 3 ]
Psychosis may involve delusional beliefs. A delusion is a fixed, false idiosyncratic belief, which does not change even when presented with incontrovertible evidence to the contrary. Delusions are context- and culture-dependent: a belief that inhibits critical functioning and is widely considered delusional in one population may be common (and ...