Schizophrenia (Key Features)

• Delusions - are fixed beliefs that are not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence.
• Referential delusions - belief that certain gestures, comments, environmental cues, and so forth are directed at oneself.
• Persecutory delusions - belief that one is going to be harmed, harassed, and so forth by an individual, organization, or other group.
• Grandiose delusions - when an individual believes that he or she has exceptional abilities, wealth, or fame.
• Erotomanic delusions - when an individual believes falsely that another person is in love with him or her.
• Somatic delusions - focus on preoccupations regarding health and organ function.
• Nihilistic delusions - involve the conviction that a major catastrophe will occur.
• Delusions are deemed bizarre if they are clearly implausible and not understandable to same-culture peers and do not derive from ordinary life experiences.
• Thought withdrawal - the belief that one’s thoughts have been “removed” by some outside force.
• That alien thoughts have been put into one’s mind (thought insertion)
• One’s body or actions are being acted on or manipulated by some outside force (delusions of control)