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A human (and not at all crazy) look at delusional ideas
Has it ever happened to you that you are so convinced of something, even though everyone tells you that it doesn’t make sense? Any weird suspicion that grew and grew in your head? Sometimes, what from the outside seems “a delirium” has a story behind it that no one has heard.
In this post we are going to talk about delusions from a very different approach to the usual. We are not going to talk about “mental disorders” or “broken” brains. We are going to talk about people, about contexts, about how life – sometimes difficult, sometimes magical – builds certain beliefs that, although they may seem absurd, make sense to those who live them.
What is a delusion (really)?
We are usually told that a delusion is a false idea that someone believes with great conviction, even if everyone else knows that it is not true. For example: believing that you are being persecuted, that you can talk to the dead, or that you have a divine mission.
But do you really think that these ideas appear out of nowhere?
As if a neuron slips and boom, you are already convinced that you are Napoleon?
Not really.
Delusions are not lightning that strikes you
Delusional ideas are built little by little. They are not crazy things that arise from a vacuum. They are responses to life situations that overwhelm, hurt or confuse. As psychologist Marino Pérez Álvarez says: “There are no delusions without history”.
I’ll give you an example.
Imagine that you live in an environment where no one listens to you, where you are constantly criticized, where you feel that you do everything wrong. One day, you start noticing someone looking at you funny at work. Then, it seems to you that they speak badly of you. Then, you hear something on the radio that you feel is aimed at you… And so, what at first was only discomfort, becomes certainty: “There is a conspiracy against me.”
Crazy? Or maybe… a way to make sense of pain.
Types of delusions (more common than you think)
- Persecution: feeling that someone wants to hurt you, even if there is no clear evidence.
- Reference: to think that what happens around you (a song, a news story) has to do with you directly.
- Of greatness: believing oneself to be chosen, having a special power, an important mission.
- Somatic: thinking that your body is bad, that you have something inside, even if doctors don’t see it.
What if instead of trying to “correct” these ideas, we start by listening to what they want to tell us?
A case of film
Let me introduce you to Juana (invented name, story based on many real ones).
Clara was a brilliant girl. Researcher, very demanding of herself. I worked in a harsh environment, full of criticism. One day, she began to think that her colleagues wanted to leave her out of the project. Later, she began to notice that the emails carried “hints” against her. Even scientific articles seemed to hide encrypted messages.
He became convinced that there was a worldwide network trying to steal his discovery.
From the outside, it looked like a delirium. But from within… It was her only way of explaining what she felt: the fear, the rejection, the pressure. What no one saw was the story behind their belief.
What happens if we look at it with different eyes?
The traditional approach (the one we see in movies or medical manuals) says, “This is a chemical imbalance. Give him medication and that’s it.” But there is another way of looking: the phenomenological one (the name sounds strange but it is simple).
This approach says,
“Let’s see how this person has lived. What he has felt. What has happened to him to make this idea make sense in his world.”
It is not “proving the madman right”, but saying: “your experience matters and I want to understand it with you”.
The brain is not everything
What we think, feel, and believe doesn’t just come from the brain. It also comes from how we have lived, from what has been done to us, from what we have not been allowed to be.
- Are you scared? Perhaps you’ve been exposed to abuse.
- Do you think you have powers? Maybe it’s the way your little head found to give you value when everything around you took it away from you.
- Do you feel persecuted? Perhaps you have experienced so much injustice that you no longer trust anyone.
And that, instead of being a “disease,” could be a form of resistance.
An invitation to look differently
Delusions are not just symptoms. They are ways of sustaining oneself when the world seems to be falling. They can be extreme, painful, yes. But they are also human, full of history, of meaning.
What if we stopped asking “what’s wrong with this person?” … and we begin to ask,
“What has happened to you in your life?”
If you know someone with this type of experience or you feel identified and would like to obtain more detailed and individualized information, do not hesitate to contact us at the team of the Institute of Psychology-Sexology Mallorca.
To go deeper I recommend “The roots of modern psychopathology” by Marino Pérez Álvarez.
Quico Martínez Milà
General Health Psychologist
Collegiate number: B-03457