Reality and discourse
A critical analysis of the category of ‘delusions’
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9617503 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Eugenie Georgaca (0000-0002-5904-2534, Sheffield Hallam University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 227-242 |
| Publication date | 2000-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | British Journal of Medical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-1129 • E-ISSN: 2056-5194 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1348/000711200160444 |
| PMID | 10874481 |
| OpenAlex | W2164656473 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 14 |
| References cited | 17 |
Delusions are seen in psychiatric research and practice as central indicators of the psychotic loss of contact with reality. In this paper the psychiatric concept of ‘delusions’ is critically examined both theoretically and through the analysis of extracts from interviews with individuals diagnosed as ‘delusional’. The diagnostic criteria for delusions, implausibility, idiosyncrasy, conviction and incorrigibility, are scrutinized, and the notion of reality that underlies the concept of delusions is deconstructed through the use of social constructionist approaches. The main arguments pursued in the paper are: first, that delusions are meaningful, not because they express something about the world or the speaker, but rather because they employ culturally available discourses and discursive strategies for their construction; second, that delusions are claims which are argued and negotiated in speech with similar strategies to those used by ‘non‐delusional’ individuals; and third, that delusions are statements about the self and the world whose truth and falsity cannot be definitely settled in speech. All three claims are discussed through the analysis of extracts from two interviews with ‘delusional’ individuals, which focuses on the assumptions underlying the negotiation of claims on reality, the discursive strategies adopted in this negotiation and the way disputes on reality are conversationally produced and settled
Conviction · Delusion · Delusional disorder · Epistemology · Existentialism · Falsity · Negotiation · Psychiatry · Psychosis · Social reality · Social science · Sociology · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Law · Mental Health and Psychiatry · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Social Psychology
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Epistemic injustice, children and mental illness
Curiosity and questioning in phenomenological psychopathology
Delusions as Storytelling Gone Wrong in Bad Life Situations
Representations of “Mental Illness” in Serbian Newspapers
Feminine sexuality, religiousness and psychotic distress
Social constructionist contributions to critiques of psychiatric diagnosis and classification
Realising the potential of general population research to reconceptualise the study of “delusions”
Forensic patients' accounts of risk
Overcoming Hermeneutical Injustice in Mental Health
War Within, War Outside
That’s what the dream says
This Is a Disease" and "Disease Has No Sin
Constructing Agency in Treatment Decisions
Subjectivity and method in psychology
An Introduction to Social Constructionism
Representing Reality
Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments
Deconstructing `Paranoia
Clinical writing and the documentary construction of schizophrenia
Damaged, Deficient or Determined? Deconstructing Narratives in Family Therapy
On the measurement of delusions
The professional construction of ‘paranoia’ and the discursive use of diagnostic criteria
Delusions
Defining delusion and the serving of professional interests
Opening Pandora's box
The social construction of reality
The social constructionist movement in modern psychology
The Very Coinage of Your Brain
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
| Unique citing works | 14 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0.64 |
| Citation span | 2004 - 2026 (23) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |