Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 22. Chapters: Capgras delusion, Cotard delusion, Delusional misidentification syndrome, Fregoli delusion, Grandiose delusions, Ideas of reference and delusions of reference, Idee fixe (psychology), Intermetamorphosis, Mirrored-self misidentification, Monothematic delusion, Persecutory delusion, Reduplicative paramnesia, Somatoparaphrenia, Syndrome of subjective doubles, The Truman Show delusion, Thought blocking, Thought broadcasting, Thought insertion, Thought withdrawal. Excerpt: A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, or other effects of perception. Delusions typically occur in the context of neurological or mental illness, although they are not tied to any particular disease and have been found to occur in the context of many pathological states (both physical and mental). However, they are of particular diagnostic importance in psychotic disorders including schizophrenia, paraphrenia, manic episodes of bipolar disorder, and psychotic depression. Although non-specific concepts of madness have been around for several thousand years, the psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers was the first to define the three main criteria for a belief to be considered delusional in his 1913 book General Psychopathology. These criteria are: Furthermore, when a false belief involves a value judgment, it is only considered as a delusion if it is so extreme that it cannot be or ever can be proven true (example: a man claims that he flew into the sun and flew back home. This would be considered a delusion). Delusions are categorized into four different groups: In addition to these categories, delusions often manifest according to a consistent theme. Although delusions can...