Delusional contagion and melancholy in paranoia
- Ariane Bilheran
- Dec 16, 2019
- 17 min read
Updated: Jul 24
Bilheran, A. "Contagion délirante et mélancolie dans la paranoïa", in Santé Mentale, Décembre 2019.
Paranoiac delusion has the peculiarity of being contagious... In this context, the psychological mechanisms at play notably include the collusion between the melancholic core of the paranoiac individual and the traces of unresolved pathological grief in the person who becomes the "paranoee".
One of the most essential mysteries to be unraveled in the field of the human psyche lies in the delusional contagion of paranoia. In fact, the only form of delusion capable of spreading through contagion is paranoiac delusion. "Folie à deux" or even "folie à plusieurs" ("Madness shared by two o several individuals"), this contagion is striking, as it can operate on a large scale - affecting individuals, groups or even masses who, under other circumstances, would not have gone so crazy (see also by the same author p. 60).
Drawing from a clinical case, I will develop here the hypothesis of the existence of a melancholic core present at the heart of paranoia which, when it resonates with traces of pathological mourning, that is to say, unrealized mourning in the targets of the paranoiac, contributes to the propagation of the delusion and anchors it in the collective.
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