... it is often preoccupying, it is usually absurd and it is not culturally shared. Delusional distress can fluctuate over time and can be reduced by specific cognitive behaviour interventions. Delusions are therefore now conceptualised as dimensional entities rather than categorical ones, lying at the extreme end of a belief continuum. According to one view, Maher (1974), delusions arise when a patient applies normal logic to an abnormal experience or perception. An example transpires that a man who is hearing voices may deduce that the BBC have invented a machine to broadcast these voices and are experimenting on him using this machine. There seems though to be an apparent ease with which irrational beliefs can be provoked in ordinary people during abnormal experimental conditions. This explanation is only upheld if the patient has a prominent symptom, which they are trying to rationalise. However, it works less well in cases where there ...

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