Langdon, R.
Centre for Cognition and its Disorders, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Inspired by the idea that delusions begin when a person reflects upon a disquieting experience and searches for explanatory hypotheses, researchers have focused on the role of reasoning biases in delusional formation. But such biases are not always present in delusional people. Moreover, the reflective explanation has difficulties in accounting for the incorrigibility and unwarranted subjective conviction of delusions. An alternate approach fares better here On this alternate approach, the explanation of anomalous data proceeds largely unconsciously and outputs fully-formed delusional content directly to consciousness, where it is endorsed as representing reality. Neither approach accounts satisfactorily for all delusions. I suggest, instead, an "immediate-reflective" spectrum. At one pole of this spectrum are immediate delusions with content that arises fully-formed and fully-(mis)believed in consciousness. At the other pole are reflective delusions that arise after reflection upon a disquieting experience, and for which the crystallisation of delusional conviction is more gradual.