Handout: Delusions

Delusions are false personal beliefs that are firmly and consistently held despite disconfirming
evidence or logic. People with delusions do not realize that their thoughts are illogical.

There are three main types of delusions:

Delusions of Grandeur
Delusions of Control
Delusions of Thought Broadcasting
Delusions of Persecution
Delusions of Reference
Delusions of Thought Withdrawal
Paranoid ideation

See. p. 366 in the textbook for definitions of each

Directions: Read the list of examples of delusions and decide which type of delusion each is:

1. A high school student believes that her mother is plotting against her. She gets a
stomach virus and believes that her mother has poisoned her.
2. A person thinks rats are inside their head
3. Patient at a hospital thinks that staff of hospital are secretly communicating with each
other via wrinkles in forehead about a plot to kill him
4. Person believes that he is Jesus and his best friends are the Disciples
5. Person thinks the government inserted a computer chip in his brain and can listen in on
his thoughts
6. In class, a student believes that another student is picking her thoughts out of her mind,
and that when he (the other student) raises his hand and speak, he is getting credit for
her thoughts
7. A college student believes they are a secret agent of the CIA. They believe that other
college students are too who have ripped jeans. They believe that the other CIA agents
are plotting to throw them out of the CIA.
8. Person thinks they are the prime minister of Ethiopia
9. A person riding the city bus thinks the driver wants to kill them
10. Person believes that their life is a TV show that is being staged and broadcast on
national TV, and that the whole world is watching them. They believe that everyone
they encounter is an actor or an extra in the show, and that the twists and turns of their
daily life are scripted events