When people have beliefs that no one around them understands or sees as credible, and that lead to trouble in the person’s life, psychiatrists call those beliefs “delusions.” That is a harsh word, and could be seen as excessively polarizing, which is why some prefer instead terms like “troublesome beliefs.” Whatever the word used however, it seems true that many people do start believing things that alienates them from others and disrupts their lives.
To make a finer distinction, important differences can be noted between the troublesome beliefs held by individuals that psychiatrists call “delusions” and the also troublesome beliefs held by groups of people that are referred to by terms such as “conspiracy theories” or simply “strongly held beliefs.” Both kinds of beliefs may seem weird and lacking any credible evidence by those who don’t endorse them, but the key difference is that believers in conspiracy theories are synchronizing their beliefs with other like minded people, their fellow believers, while people who believe in “delusions” are going it alone and not synchronizing with anyone.
Such distinctions are not perfect of course. Sometimes a person may convince just one other person that their “delusion” is true – then psychiatrists call it a “shared psychotic disorder” or “folie à deux” (French for “madness of two.”) And if a third person starts believing, the term is “folie à troix.” If even more people start believing, then eventually it is no longer seen as a delusion, just a conspiracy theory or whatever. And if just about everyone believes it, we might call it “consensus reality” even though it is pretty clear that not everything that most people believe is really true!
One thing that is clear is that we need better ways of understanding and of talking to people who have beliefs that we think are causing trouble.
If you are interested in learning more about how to have such understanding and such conversations, especially with people who have troublesome beliefs that are individual and unique, I encourage you to consider joining an upcoming webinar where an expert in therapy for psychosis will discuss “Decoding Delusions: Making Sense of Different Types of Troublesome Beliefs.”
In this webinar, to be held on Thursday 2/20/25 at 9 AM Pacific Time, Doug Turkington will discuss all of the following:
- the variety of different delusions seen in clinical practice including persecutory paranoia, grandiose, Capgras, organic and Cotard’s delusions.
- the typical presentations of delusional systems/memories and substance induced delusions.
- how delusions relate to strongly held beliefs which, despite minimal factual basis, spread widely on social media.
- the variety of approaches for clinicians and also for family members including befriending, collaborative (peripheral) questioning, shared reality testing, asking questions about the pre-psychotic period, and generating a timeline.
- schema vulnerability and goal conflict models (to be briefly discussed.)
There will then be 30 minutes for questions.
About the Presenter:
Dr. Doug Turkington is a Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and a Professor of Psychosocial Psychiatry at Newcastle University. He co-edited the book “Decoding Delusions: A Clinician’s Guide to Working With Delusions and Other Extreme Beliefs” and he has authored over 100 articles and more than half a dozen other books on CBT for psychosis, including notable works such as “Cognitive Therapy of Schizophrenia” and “Back to Life, Back to Normality: Cognitive Therapy, Recovery and Psychosis.” He has also provided guidance to family members interested in drawing from CBT for psychosis to improve relationships with their loved ones who are struggling – some recorded webinars are available here.
A small donation is requested for registration, but those lacking funds can also request a scholarship to attend for free.
By the way, I did previously write a review of the “Decoding Delusions” book that Doug co-edited, you can find that review here.
