On today’s post, Bethany Linham explores whether delusions can be understood as a way of experiencing the world. Bethany is a PhD researcher at the University of Exeter, where her work draws on phenomenology and imagination to explore the nature of delusional experience. Bethany Linham Delusion: bad believing, or something more? Throughout my career, I have always been struck by the overwhelmingly pathocentric approach researchers and clinicians take to delusions. There is a common tendency to lean on the assumption that delusions are mere byproducts of a faulty cognitive system – paradigmatic instances of ‘bad’, irrational beliefs. This cannot be the full story. After all, delusions have a profound effect on a subject’s life as a whole, not just on their cognitive performance. I argue that to experience a delusion is to undergo a fundamental existential shift. The foundations of one’s life world become compromised: shared spaces, objects, everyday encounters, and relationships all tak...
A blog at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and mental health