A state of shared delusion or delusion by proxy.
Usually there is a primary person who harbours delusional ideas. These ideas filter through and are reinforced by someone close to them.
This is not a frequently seen scenario in the acute sense, but when it is observed it is often a close relationship such as enmeshed mother and daughter. The ideas are often paranoid or persecutory in nature.
It is not a state of
These are fixed false ideas. Highly structured and all inclusive states of delusional thinking as seen in paranoid schizophrenic illnesses.
I find psychosis and the pieces of reality they are built upon and are tethered to fascinating.
We are all impressionable by those close to us when it comes to ideas and belief systems.
I have often looked at people's differing ideas and belief systems and questioned what is delusion and what is blind faith.
I posed this question to a colleague once, who unlike me held to a strong unwavering faith.
Her response stayed with me and remained an effective way to gauge the health of ideas and avoid prejudice.
She said. You look at how it effects their life. Does it enhance their life or does it harm them. If it is not harming them or others then there is no problem.
