The Plague of Misidentification
Blaming, Scapegoating, & Refusal of Ownership Part 6 Delusion
In today's TPOM, we will investigate the concept of delusion. This investigation will be dealing with self-generated intentional delusions. We all know someone who has these types of delusions, and we often wonder how this comes about, but what about the fact that we likely have these delusions as well? What can we do to live in reality and react to that reality appropriately? Is a delusion what we are really addressing if it is self-generated, or is it a misidentification? Let's dig in and see what we find on our little journey into self-generated delusions.
Definitions
Delusion - "Anything that deceives the mind with a false impression; a deception; a fixed false opinion or belief with regard to objective things, esp. as a form of mental derangement." OED.
"An often highly personal idea or belief system, not endorsed by one's culture or subculture, that is maintained with conviction in spite of irrationality or evidence to the contrary. Delusions may be transient and fragmentary, as in delirium, or highly systematized and elaborate, as in delusional disorders, though most of them fall between these two extremes." APA Dictionary of Psychology.
"A false belief or perception that is a manifestation of a mental illness." The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
"An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary." WordNet 3.0 Princeton University.
Delusion is at the heart of human thought. Our species generates it effortlessly and always with purpose, except in well-known clinical cases. If we rule out for the time being, as we will in this essay, the types of delusion one can be beset by that are not under one's control, such as the type seen in Schizophrenia, for example, what we are left with is a purposeful or intentional delusion, which is self-generated. In this short essay, my aim is to gather a few observations on the motives, mechanisms, and ultimate outcroppings that operate when one utilizes delusion as a mechanism of scapegoating, blaming, and refusing responsibility.