Browse Books By Subject

Paranoia

The Psychology of Persecutory Delusions

  • Price: $47.50 $42.75
  • Hardback: 208 pages
  • Published: March 2004
  • ISBN: 978-1-84169-522-8
  • Publisher: Psychology Press

Sharing & Social Bookmarking:

Question about this product?

Part of the Maudsley Series series

Paranoia is the suspicion that other intend to cause you harm. It is a common experience in the general population, though often overlooked. In its most severe form, paranoia occurs as persecutory delusions.

Paranoia, written by leading researchers in this field, is the first cognitive psychology book to have persecutory delusions as its focus. Scholarly, comprehensive and illustrated by clinical examples throughout, this study defines the phenomena in detail and analyses the content of persecutory delusions. It reviews previous psychological writings, explores the relationship between psychosis and neurosis, reports on innovative empirical studies with patients, and highlights future essential research directions.

Paranoia outlines a new theoretical model of the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions, providing an excellent guide to this important clinical topic. It will be of great interest and use to all psychiatrists and clinical psychologists who work in this field.

Table of Contents

Persecutory Delusions. Emotion and Delusion. Delusion Content and Emotional Distress. Delusions and Disconfirmatory Evidence. Hypervigilance. Meta-cognitive Processes. A Cognitive Model of Persecutory Delusions. Researching Delusions. Appendix 1: Details of Threat Questionnaire. Appendix 2: The Safety Behaviours Questionnaire

Reviews

This volume represents a major step forward in advancing the understanding of delusions. - From the foreword by Aaron T. Beck

Author Biography

Daniel Freeman is Lecturer in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and Honorary Clinical Psychologist, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.

Philippa A. Garety is Professor of Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London and Honorary Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Trust Head of Psychology, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust.