Passionate Delusions Chronic Systematized DelusionsPassionate Delusions Chronic Systematized Delusions

Introduction

A delusion is a belief, a certainty that the person has that what he thinks is irrefutable and cannot be changed with the evidence of reality [1]. When delusions arise, there may be a period that precedes them in which the person may have moments of great anxiety and suffering, as they still do not understand and cannot yet make sense of what is happening. Some delusions can appear quickly, especially in organic conditions, for example, in toxic or infectious psychoses, as well as in disorders of consciousness. Unlike these acute delusions, chronic

delusions are long-lasting, persisting for a long time or throughout the person’s life without much possibility of modification, thus characterizing chronic systematized delusions, or paranoid psychoses, or delusional disorders. They are delusions that are very well organized due to their content that generally does not change, the richness of details, the construction of stories that can be believed and convinced. Because these delusions are part of the person’s personality, they evolve consistently [2]. Clérambault mentioned these delusions as “postulates of the delusional fable” because they are constructed in a logical way, based on false data and their development is presented in a misleading way [3]. Symptoms of these delusions include delusional interpretations, delusional perceptions, hallucinatory activities, and fables, which in turn are pathological manifestations. These delusions have a coherence, since they have a systematized form, and often manage to convince people around the delusional. This leads to making other people participate in the delusion as “induced delusional” due to its great power of persuasion. In this group of chronic systematized delusions, also called paranoid psychoses, are included the socalled passional delusions, claim delusions, relational sensitive delusion (KRETSCHMER), and the interpretation delusion by Sérieux and Capgras [4]. Passionate delusions are often based on the same affective base that has a paranoid and complex element as a characteristic. Although the passionate delusion often causes great difficulty for clinicians to make a diagnosis, it is generated due to a characteristic imbalance, it is usually experienced with various disturbances that can reach hallucinations and impulsive behaviors. In these cases, passion develops based on imaginary elements that are experienced as true. Because they have an imaginary structure, they are pathological and delusional, have unshakable ideoaffective groupings and stand against any type of evidence. These pictures include delusion of jealousy and erotomaniac delusion [5]. The delusion of jealousy has as its main characteristic the fact that the person is sure that he is being betrayed, and all the behavior of the loved one is interpreted as betrayal. In general, she is extremely attached and emotionally dependent on her loved one. Delusional jealousy can occur in many settings of psychosis and in chronic alcoholism, but it occurs very often in chronic delusional disorder. People with intense delusional activity of jealousy can commit physical violence or even murder against whom they believe is betraying them. The erotomanic delusion is considered a morbid passion disorder, the person is sure that a person usually of a higher level than her is in love with her. As this delusion progresses, we can observe three very striking elements that set the tone for the delusion, which are hope, resentment, and rancor. In erotomaniac delusion, pride, desire, and hope are the feelings that generate' the fundamental premise. The object (the person) by whom the subject believes himself to be loved is generally of a higher class, and the delusional romance develops on the following theme: the object cannot be happy without the lover. In this way, continuous surveillance, and protection of the object, attempts to approach and indirect conversations with it are initiated. In the resentment phase, aggressive, impulsive, dangerous reactions can be assumed, which reach the passionate drama of rupture and revenge and the subject can commit a crime against those who abandoned him. Object attempts to approach and indirect conversations with it are initiated. In the resentment phase, aggressive, impulsive, dangerous reactions can be assumed, which reach the passionate drama of rupture and revenge and the subject can commit a crime against those who abandoned him.

References

• Clérambault G (1942) Les psychoses passionnelles. Presses Universitairesde France, Paris. pp. 311-455.
• Clérambault G (1921) Les delires passionnels. Érotomanie, Revendication, Jalousie. (Présentation de malade), Bulletin de la Société Clinique de Médecine Mentale, février p. 61.
• Dalgalarrondo P (2000) Psicopatologia e semiologia dos transtornos mentais. Porto Alegre: Artes Médicas 22(1): 271.
• Ey h, bernard p, Brisset Ch (1989) Manuel de psychiatrie. 6 é Paris: Masson.
• Kraepelin E (1921) Manic-DepressiveInsanity and Paranoia, traduit par BARCLAY RM, [Ed’s.] Edinburg: E&S Livingston, UK.