I have two alternative hypotheses. (1) The client improves when exposed to current events, because he or she faces the reality of those events. For example, the newspaper mentions the President of the United States. It would refute that the client suffering a delusion of grandeur would realize that they were not the President of the United States. (2) The client improves when exposed to current events, because the cleitn feels that he or she is connected to the larger world aroung him or her versus being stuck in the isolative nature.
I always thought delusions were impervious to challenge, even in normals. Most religions are delusions in the opinion of adherents of competing religions, and exposure to evidence against that person's religion is generally ineffective in altering belief.
Dear John,
here is a book on the issue:
Cognitive therapy for delusions, voices and paranoia. Wiley series in clinical psychology.
Chadwick, Paul D.; Birchwood, Max J.; Trower, Peter
Oxford, England: John Wiley & Sons. (1996). xviii 212 pp.
Abstract
The aim of this book is to guide . . . professionals towards better practice by treating the individual symptoms of delusions, voices and paranoia, rather than by the categorisation of schizophrenia.
The authors provide an introduction to their cognitive model and show how therapy depends crucially on the collaborative relationship with the client. While earlier approaches to these distressing symptoms depended on an overall model of schizophrenia which emphasised fundamental discontinuities with normal thought and psychological processes, the authors' approach is supported by substantial research that indicates that delusions, voices and paranoia lie on a continuum of differences in thought and behaviour, and do not arise from fundamentally different psychological processes.
This book offers a practical, research-based . . . approach to the assessment and treatment of psychotic disorders and also an argument for the development of a person model for treatment, which is based on the person's enduring psychological vulnerabilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
It would probably be a good idea to check out with the client what exposure to such facts would mean to them. I have worked with a lot of clients who when exposed to challenges on their delusional belief systems end up building these facts into said belief systems, hence not actually altering the delusion itself. So it is always helpful to check out how they would interpret this information.
Question and hypotheses posed:
Working with clients with chronic psychotic thought disorders, what are other people's experiences with exposing clients to current events?
1) The client improves when exposed to current events, because he or she faces the reality of those events. For example, the newspaper mentions the President of the United States. It would refute that the client suffering a delusion of grandeur would realize that they were not the President of the United States.
2) The client improves when exposed to current events, because the client feels that he or she is connected to the larger world around him or her versus being stuck in the isolative nature.
I have three possibilities relative to the hypotheses you have presented.
a) Is your client showing signs of being delusional? Has the client said I am the President of the United States or; I was elected President of the United States and there is a conspiracy to over through the government by replacing me with this individual?
b) Is the client claiming to be the President of the United States until confronted with evidence of the identity of actual sitting President of the United States? Also, is this a reoccurring theme with the client?
c) Is the client client unsure of the identity of the President of the United States until shown who the actual sitting President of the United States is?
I found recently in Aaron Beck's 1976 treatise, Cognitive Behavior and Emotional Disorders, that clients with psychotic disorders tend to do better when they are exposed to Rogerian person-centered elements (empathetic listening, genuineness, and uncondtional positive regard). Talking with them about topics that they want to talk about seems to spark that connection.
- Badges
- Science method
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Statistical Techniques
- Meta-Analysis