Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 86.djvu/89

Rh expresses a belief that he is a king. This delusion, when analyzed, or carefully observed during its development, is found to result from processes like the following. The individual has always been poor; he has had very great difficulty in making sufficient money to purchase for himself food of the character he craves, or to buy clothes to keep himself clean and respectable in appearance. At times, because his views of life have been different from those of his companions, he has found that he has been associated with other people of his own financial situation with whom he has not been en rapport. Their mental and moral coarseness has jarred upon him and caused him to believe that he is somehow and in certain particulars quite different from those with whom he normally associates. Then he finds it difficult to obtain a position. Owing to his inefficiency he loses one position after another, and because of his belief that he is different from his co-workers, there comes the next step in the delusion formation, the belief that people are down upon him, or are persecuting him. The final step is easy. The reasons for the persecution are sought; he considers various possibilities; he thinks about his past life, of the various positions from which he has been separated owing to no fault of his own (as he thinks); he sees no definite connection between the losses of his positions and his own incompetency, or between his lack of harmony with his fellow workmen and his own mental condition; he begins to believe that there must be some united effort to bring about these adverse conditions. Sometimes he believes this external influence is exerted by the Masons; sometimes it is one or other of the churches; and at other times he believes his difficulty has been due to the fact that his social position, if known, would be higher than that of those who persecute him. Eventually he comes to believe that he is a legitimate son of a certain ruler, and that all of his troubles have been due to the fact that in childhood, or perhaps in babyhood, another infant or child was substituted for him and that various difficulties have been made to prevent his assuming his proper place and to keep him down. From these beliefs it is an easy step to the belief that he is to be the lawful king when his supposed father dies. In general, such is the mode of development of the so-called systematized delusion which arises gradually, and which is thought out.

On the other hand, delusions may arise suddenly as if by inspiration. These latter, as has been previously suggested, usually come because of particular kinds of hallucinations which convey messages indicating the individual’s supposed greatness or his unworthiness. Here the auditory hallucinations usually play the most important part. The voice of God may be heard telling him that he is the Messiah, or he hears voices constantly saying that he must be kept out of the way in order that another may have the place which lawfully belongs to him,